Warriors of Light
by Kaneta
Summary: Fushigi Yuugi, Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy VIII: Tasuki, Chichiri, Link and Laguna Loire must face a new enemy. CHAPTER 14 UP!
1. Silver Light

DISCLAIMER:  
  
I don't own anything pertaining to Fushigi Yugi, The Legend of Zelda, or Final Fantasy VIII.  
  
I merely fantasize. I don't own Chichiri, Tasuki, Link, Laguna Loire, or the lyrics to Epona's song, I don't own any part of their appearance—in case I've left anything out, let me speak plainly. I own nothing in this story but the story.  
  
As is typical, please—review me, flame me, whatever. Please!  
  


SILVER LIGHT

  
  
Tasuki groaned. "Come on, Chichiri! Just throw your little magic kusa in the air and *whoosh* us over to Hotohori!" He brushed an unruly lock of fiery hair out of one golden eye. Sensuous lips pulled back in a grimace, revealing sharp, pearly canines. "I am fucking SICK of all this walking! "  
  
Chichiri snorted. "Have you forgotten that the Emperor Hotohori requested that we take the long way?" he asked wryly. "How are we to make a decent, thorough report of the state of his people if we just magic ourselves to the palace, no da?" He flicked the fingers of one long hand at the surrounding countryside. "This—every step of it—is necessary, and you know that, no da! Reaching up, he placed his hand along one smooth cheekbone. With an audible rip, his cheerful face came away, revealing his scar and the single remaining sienna eye left to him. He cast his glance around warily. "Something's happening." He said, his voice deepening with his mood. As he brandished his staff and held his left hand ready for gesturing, Tasuki chuckled menacingly. "Action!" he laughed, though Chichiri knew that in reality the Seishi was utterly serious. Something sparkled in the corner of his eye, and both the monk and the bandit whirled. Tasuki's tessen cut the air, but a sudden flash of light swallowed both of the warriors—and the road was empty.  
  
  
  
Link whistled, and Epona came galloping up. Malon laughed. "Look at the power of my six-foot specimen of Hylian masculinity!" she teased. "With his perfect blond hair and those blue, blue eyes, deep enough to drown in." Link silenced her with a quick kiss. "Now, now." He chided. "No need to get vicious." She slapped at him playfully. "You'd better get going. Saria might get worried." Link bowed at his fiancée and kissed her hand before swinging easily into the saddle. "Be well, my heart." He murmured, urging Epona into a gallop.  
  
Link hummed with the rhythm of the horse's movement. "Epona, Epona, growing up with me…when I am with you, I can't be lonely…" He smiled inwardly at the simplicity of the song—the song that drew him first to Malon all those years ago, in the busy market square. "My lovely one…" his musings ceased mid thought with a quizzical look. Epona was breathing heavily, and her eyes showed white. "What's wrong?" Epona whinnied and bucked panicked, before turning and racing into the other direction. Link trusted Epona's actions, but all the same, he looked back—just in time to see a wave of silver light rolling toward him. "Holy Nayru—"  
  
Epona galloped on, alone and riderless.  
  
  
  
Laguna Loire sighed and padded, sockfooted, across the room to stare out the window. Below him, and all across the glacier, the lights of Esthar glowed brightly. He grinned. _Peace. _ He thought happily, sipping at his wine. _If only my Raine could see it, live in it, and know our beautiful son._ the thought was an old one; Squall was the SeeD leader for the Balamb Garden, and thus, the president of SeeD itself. _Not bad for a twenty-year-old. And what a beautiful wife! _

Laguna studied his reflection in the window, seeing pieces of his son in himself. Long, loose black hair framed a gentle, slender face with merry gray eyes. He'd lost none of his litheness in the two decades since Raine's death—slim and strong as whipcord, ready for anything that might come between him and his. He'd gained a few white hairs, but lost nothing since he wore the uniform of a Galbadian soldier. Lightning flashed abovedome, filling the sky with silver light. Protected as the domes were, he was free to watch the storm as long as he liked. "Beautiful." He murmured. Lightning flashed again, and the dome's windows buzzed with thunder. Rain began to fall, blurring the lights of Esthar into shimmering stars, blue and gold and alabaster in the dark. He finished the last sip of wine and carefully set the fluted glass—Balamb crystal, a gift from his son—on his bedside table. "Good night." He said softly. Reaching his bed, he pulled back the covers and pulled one pillow down as well—a habit he'd gained after Raine died, and never been able to break himself of. One long pillow, stretched alongside his slender body as a motionless surrogate of his wife. He curled up around it, willing his body-warmth to drive away the cold.  
  
A breeze flowed through the room. It caressed tendrils of his loose black hair, the silk of his pajamas. "What—" Lightning struck again abovedome, and at the same time, light flashed within Laguna's suite.  
  
When the shadows again regained the room, the bed was empty. 


	2. Flower Fields

Usual disclaimers—I don't own anything, I just like to fantasize, please don't try to sue me, I haven't got any money anyway.

FLOWER FIELDS

  
  
"Ooh…M'head…"  
  
Tasuki opened his eyes. "What a hangover ."  
  
His face rested on a thicket of grass. His right hand was curled around his tessen, his left reached out—and brushed Chichiri's shoulder. "Eh? Chichiri! What happened?"  
  
"Daa…" His voice was raw and rough; he cleared his throat, and it raised to its tenor self again.  
  
"That light…" The monk sat up groggily. "We're not alone, no da!" He pointed at two more unconscious men nearby. One was wearing clothing that reminded Tasuki of Hotohori's "peasant" gear, and his black hair had fallen over his sleeping face. He was pale, slender, and his chest rose and fell with breathing as shallow as that of a young child. A few feet from him, a young man dressed mainly in green—green tunic with white trews and white undersleeves, long, trailing green hat—lay very still, his azure eyes open and alert. He was watching the seishi carefully, unblinking, silent.  
  
"Hello, na no da!" Chichiri greeted him brightly. The young man sat up, losing his long hat as he did so. Tasuki's eyebrows shot into his fiery hairline, for after the man's long—_Long!_—hair tumbled from the hat, the tips of his slender, pointed ears showed through it. Muscles rippled under that deceptively simple tunic—this young man, who was stockier than he had seemed at first glance, could only be a warrior himself. Chichiri, catching the fellow seishi's brief expression of startlement, shook his head almost imperceptibly. Tasuki shrugged in return. They'd had odder allies, after all, and were themselves more than normal in appearance—what with Chichiri's slate-blue hair and catfaced mask, and the scar beneath it that had obliterated one eye. _I'm not normal either. _he reflected, feeling his sharp canines with his tongue. The young man, finally seeming to have studied them enough, said "Hello. Where are we?" Tasuki shrugged. "Fuck if I know. There was a flash of light, an' *poof!* Here we are."  
  
The young man sighed. "You, too? And this sleeping one? Where are you from?"  
  
"Esthar."  
  
They all turned to see that the fourth of their number had woken, and was looking about with worried silver eyes. "This isn't Ellone's work, is it? I'm still in my own body, and no younger." He murmured softly. "What, then?" Dusting himself off, he stood. "I'm Laguna Loire, the President of Esthar—little good though I think that will do me here—wherever 'here' happens to be." Tasuki, not wanting to be outdone, leapt to his feet. "Tasuki, the Phantom Wolf of Konan. This is—"  
  
"Chichiri. A wandering monk."  
  
The green-clad young man rose easily. "I'm Link, the H—just Link." His small smile was sheepish, as if he'd said something foolish. "Why are we all here? Where IS here?"  
  
They looked around for the first time. They stood in a grassy field filled with wildflowers. Laguna took a step, looked down at his feet, and laughed. "Whoever brought us here doesn't have much of a sense of politeness, ne?" He held up one socked foot. "I should at least have been able to bring my shoes! I don't suppose that anyone has an extra pair of shoes? Or some clothing?"  
  
Chichiri and Tasuki shrugged while Link looked at him speculatively. "Perhaps." He said. Link reached turned a little, and they saw that he wore an ornate shield on his back, with a scabbard nestled between his shoulderblades and its grip. Under the scabbard sat a small leather bag, which Link detached from his swordbelt. He reached a hand into it and pulled out a pair of gauntlets, which he donned, and reached in again, pulling out and rejecting items. "Bottled fairy? No. Deku nuts? No. Ah! Here!" He thrust a stout pair of leather boots and a pile of blue cloth at Laguna, ignoring his astonished stare. "Oh, this too. You'll probably need to bind the boots around your legs, since I'm bigger than you."  
  
"How the hell did you fit all of that stuff in there?" Tasuki asked wonderingly. "Magic." Link replied with a mysterious smile. Suddenly his face brightened. "I know!" He shoveled everything back into the pack. The elf—_for what else could he be? _ Laguna mused—stood very still, and the other three instinctively stepped back a pace at the look of concentration on his face. He raised his hands, and a sudden flow of power to them made Laguna's eardrums pop. Light seemed to rush to the upraised palms, and it coalesced into an orb of spring-green light that hovered, spinning slightly, over their heads. "My thanks, Farore." Link said softly. Chichiri studied the orb, his face inscrutable through the mask.  
  
"Genbu?" Tasuki asked quietly. The monk shook his head.  
  
"Ni-ce!" Laguna said approvingly. He'd dressed in the borrowed clothing quickly, a blue tunic and boots to match Link's. The tunic hung loosely on his narrow frame, the sleeves of the white blouse were as free as those of a bard, and the boots had been wound around with the leather thong to hold them tight to his calves, but all in all it was not a bad effect. Link opened his belt-pouch, utterly disregarding the orb of light, and pulled out a sky-blue, rounded shape with holes punched into it. Seeing it, Tasuki was reminded of a shell he'd found as a boy, a conch. Link cradled the mysterious object as gently as a baby in his hands. "You guys wait right here." He said.  
  
"Where the fuck else would we go, huh?" Tasuki grumbled. Link raised the object to his lips, and Chichiri nodded. "It's an ocarina, no da!"  
  
"An ocawho?" Before the monk could answer the ex-bandit, he realized in surprise that music was coming from the thing! It was a simple tune, and short, but haunting nonetheless, and it seemed to echo in the field. Link finished the song, and nodded as though affirming something.  
  
And vanished.  
  
Dissolved, really, into a mass of green, sparkling light that darted up to the sky and disappeared.  
  
"No way, na no da!" Chichiri cried. "What th' hell?" Tasuki yelled, supremely annoyed. "Th' bastard went an' fuckin' LEFT us here!" Laguna sighed. "Well, now we wait." Tasuki whirled. "Eh? Who died and made you Miko?" Laguna raised both hands in a gesture of supplication. "Sorry! I meant that I will wait, as the elf requested. You need not."  
  
"Well, I will!" the ex-bandit snorted. Chichiri sighed. "We need to find out where we are, no da. Are we even still on our own world?" Laguna shrugged. "I'm from Esthar, but originally from Galbadia. Either of those names sound familiar? Or the words Balamb, SeeD, Garden, gunblade, Chocobo or space station?"  
  
Blank stares.  
  
"Um-oh…seeds are planted in gardens, right?" Chichiri supplied helpfully. Laguna smiled. "Sort of. But you can't possibly be from my world, or at least not my time." He looked up and darted to one side as green light shot from the sky, hit the ground, and faded away to reveal Link, who clutched at his head and fell to his knees. Chichiri rushed over to him, but he waved him off. "No, Chichiri…it's all right…I just…won't try that…again." He forced himself upright. "Doesn't work…we're nowhere in Hyrule."  
  
"Or Konan."  
  
"Or Esthar, Galbadia…anywhere else in my world." Laguna finished. Link shrugged. "Let me see if I've got this straight. We were torn from our own worlds by a flash of silver light. We don't know where we are, or why, or who wants us here. Right?"  
  
"Right, no da!"  
  
"All right, then. Do any of you have any real plan? No?"  
  
His worried eyes darted between them. "Obviously we shouldn't split up, regardless of our personal talents. But what else? Shall we just pick a direction and start traveling in it?"  
  
"South." Tasuki said clearly. "Home, in Konan, is South."  
  
"Suzaku is the god of the South."  
  
Laguna said "Esthar is in the South."  
  
Link smiled. "The Kokiri forest is in the southwest." He said. "South it is."  
  
"Well, then. Shall we?"  
  
THUS BEGIN THEIR ADVENTURES, AND LIKEWISE OUR TALE. 


	3. Dancing Embers

(I got a review! I got a review! Yay! *Does the Dance of Special Words with Captain Ginyu*)

This chapter's a bit more somber than the last two. Hope everyone likes it—or at least reviews it!

I don't own Zelda, Fushigi Yugi or Final Fantasy. I'm not making any money off of this—though the pure pleasure of reading reviews will make me feel very, very rich.

Gentle snores reached Tasuki's ears as he sat on watch with Laguna. It was late at night; the moon was far past its zenith, the stars were bright, and from far off the howling of a pack of wolves could be heard. Tasuki kicked a bootlength of dirt into the fire, which the fire ignored completely—it had been set well, and flames caused by his tessen were harder to stifle.

Tasuki yawned.

Laguna, who was idly trying not to watch the ex-bandit for fear of his temper, looked quickly away. Tasuki, noticing this, chuckled grimly.

"What?" Laguna asked carefully.

"Aw, nothin'. Just thinkin' about how, where I came from, people used ta go out of their way ta avoid me. Seems like old habits die hard; ya look like you're wantin' ta do the same."

Laguna laughed. "I think this whole affair would be easier if we got along, Tasuki. What do you mean, they 'used to' fear you?"

Tasuki sighed deeply. "Look at this." He rolled up one sleeve and showed his arm, with the symbol that meant 'wing' glowing blood-red on it. "Is that some sort of tattoo?" Laguna asked in confusion. Tasuki grinned. "Nah. This is my seishi-mark. It means that I was born to serve and protect the Priestess of Suzaku."

Laguna blinked.

"What's a Suzaku?"

Stunned at the sudden resemblance of Laguna's voice to Miaka's, Tasuki burst out laughing. Roaring and rolling on the ground, his lungs finally gave out and he sat up weakly, wiping hilarious tears off of his face. "Ah- ha-ha…heh…" He cleared his throat and turned back to the confused soldier. "That's exactly what SHE asked, before the Emperor Hotohori told 'er that she was the Priestess!" He snorted. "She thought it was some kinda' chicken…"

Laguna, infected by his humor, smiled at his mistake. "Oh? And what is it?"

"He. Our patron god, Suzaku, the Phoenix, and one mean bastard in a fight." The seishi's voice lowered in respect—something Laguna thought must be rare. "Miaka—she's from another world. The world of Earth. She was some kinda' schoolgirl, always studyin' and workin, tryin' hard to make her mama happy. She got in a fight with her mom, an' read this book, an' when she did, she got sucked into our world. 'Cause she was there from another world, that made her the Priestess, and 'cause she landed in Konan, that made her the Priestess of Suzaku. Which was a good thing, since we needed her bad."

Laguna wondered at the fond look that shadowed the flame-haired guardian's face, and asked "But why were people afraid of you?"

Tasuki looked at him shrewdly. "Cause I'm the Phantom Wolf, that's why! Cause I was a bandit-lord, one of the greatest! People groveled at my feet, and offered their daughters to me if only I'd give them a week of peace. 'Course, I never hurt anyone that didn' hurt me first, and I never took their daughters…but stealing? Intimidation? Easy."

"Then what?" Despite his vow of politeness, Laguna found himself curious about the young man. "Why did you give all of that up?"

The seishi shook his head. "Why the hell do ya wanna know?" Laguna was taken aback, trying quickly to find an answer, but the warrior continued. "Aw, never mind. If yer like me, you just wanna talk, fill the air with words." He reached into his pack and pulled out a leather winesack. Uncorking it, he took a long drag before passing it to Laguna. "Here. Try some'a this." Laguna followed his example, taking a deep swallow. He instantly regretted it. Salty alcohol burned its way down his throat, and he gasped at the sensation. Tasuki laughed. "Too strong for ya? Bet ya drink wine most'a the time, ne? Fuckin' weak." Laguna shrugged wryly. "That I do. But please, continue."

Tasuki nodded. "Awright. So I lived in the mountains with my bandits—really they weren't mine yet. They belonged to the Boss. He'd been injured, and he took wound-sick—Mits says it got septic or some shit like that."

Laguna refrained from asking who "Meets" was at the sorrowful look on the bandit's face.

"I went to find a kinda plant that the healers'd told me would make him well again, but when I got back, he'd died already. An' there were other problems. There was this girl—funny dressed little thing, maybe sixteen years old, and obviously she didn' know the mountains from a hole in the dirt, 'cause here she was walkin around like an idiot. So I did the obvious thing; I kidnapped her. She didn' even really fight me. She told me that she was the Priestess of Suzaku, and someone'd told her that one of her warriors lived as ruler of the bandits on the Mountain. So she just up an' went, just like that, to find him! O'course, that person was me, but I wasn't gonna tell her that, right? Fuck no. I wanted to stay where I fuckin' was." He smiled. "But I didn't. She won me over, and I fought for her. End of story."

Laguna protested "But—but—Why—"

"Ah, ah, ah! I told ya why they were afraid o'me. Yer turn."

"What?" Laguna was startled.

"Ya heard me. Yer turn. Who are ya?"

"The President of Esthar—"

"Bullshit. WHO are ya? Gimme a story, damnit! I wanna hear something about ya. Why did you become this president guy? Is it like bein' an Emperor?"

"Sort of. It's like being an Emperor that has to take care of all of his people, sacrifice his sleep and personal time to stop this war or that one, make sure that there's enough to eat…keep them safe and healthy and happy."

"Sounds like Emperor Hotohori ta me." The bandit grinned. "Ya seem ta be a bit less full o' yerself, though." Laguna shrugged. "I don't know him, so I couldn't say."

"Anyway. So yer an Emperor with a dumbass title."

"Basically, yeah, except that I had to get elected. The people chose me."

"Aw, forget this shit. This is *boring!* Tell me about yer woman."

Laguna jumped. "My what?"

"Concubines? Paid Ladies? Velveted Pearls? Or did you have a sappy relationship with a wife an' kids an' all?"

"I had a wife."

Tasuki frowned. The older man's face had settled into a bittersweet smile, and his eyes were bright with what might have been tears. "I loved her very much. She's buried in a place a lot like this one, actually." He gestured at the wide field, with the bright stars above. Without him seeming to notice, his left hand reached out and toyed with a flower, idly rolling it between his fingers. "Her name was Raine, and she was beautiful. She had long dark hair, and she was so tiny that my two hands together could almost meet around her waist. She was always happy, always spreading joy to someone or another, and I never met anyone else who had such a capacity for loving. She had a little girl, Ellone, who she'd taken in after the monsters came. I love that girl like a father does, so I suppose that you could say we had children. Raine died birthing my child, my beautiful son—I didn't find him again for twenty years."

Tasuki shook his head. "So yer world has its problems too, huh?"

Laguna nodded. "You have no idea. My people travel to the stars, and that only gives us more problems. The Sorceresses, the Garden—all connected, all together and necessary…sometimes I hate it."

"So…eh…how did you meet this Raine?" Tasuki was interested despite himself, and he offered the skin to Laguna after taking another big gulp from it. Laguna sipped gingerly and sat back, resting his head on his arms and staring into the sky. "I got sent to war for stupid reasons. Then everything went bad. A sorceress—uh, an evil female magic-user with a lot of power—had taken control of a lot of things, and she wanted it all. Monsters were set loose, and when I escaped the army I was taken in by a little town called Winhill. They needed someone to kill the marauding monsters that showed up from time to time, and I needed a place to stay outside my home country so that I couldn't be executed for failing a suicidal mission. It worked out fine. The job was simple, the townspeople that were still left after the initial monster attack and the war loved me, and I was sort of adopted by Raine and Ellone. I loved Raine—I finally knew what it was like to really love someone, and it hurt when I had to leave. I married her before I did, but when I went to fight the Sorceress Adel, who had kidnapped Ellone, Raine gave birth and died. I never got to tell her how proud of our boy I am—she never got to see Squall saving everything and marrying a lovely girl himself." Tasuki yawned accidentally, and he saw Laguna's supressed smile. "Not trying to bore you." Tasuki shrugged. "I've been awake now for about two days."

Laguna nodded. "And I, as well. But I'm not really tired yet."

"Me, either. So, what else?"

Laguna shrugged and watched a shooting star. "Nothing much. I stopped Adel, but when I came home, Raine was gone and so was my son. Ellone was all right, but she was so young…too young to really understand what was going on. I let her go to an orphanage to be with the other kids, since I really couldn't be a father to her at all, with all the work I had to do. She grew up, and with her help, my son Squall saved our world."

He sat up again and faced the seishi. " And you? Any special girl?" Tasuki reddened. "No-oo." He said softly. "Ah." Laguna said with understanding so thick in his voice that Tasuki almost choked on it. "One you wished had been special?"

"Not really. I mean, all of us love Miaka in one way'r another. Shit, Nuriko loved her, and he only goes for men!"

"Ah! Your Priestess. I thought you said she was funny looking?"

"No! Not funny lookin', funny dressed. She wore this little outfit—nothin' like all the women on my world. She had hair about to here—" The guardian put both hands behind his back to touch his shoulderblades—"An' it was a brown that looked red in tha right light. Her eyes were brown, her skin was pale, just like anyone else in China…"He trailed off. Laguna cleared his throat and the warrior started, blushing so furiously that it was obvious even in the mere light of the moon. "Anyway! She had this way of makin' anythin' seem better. It could be the middle of a battle—an we all lost enough friends, too—an' she'd still make us see hope. She never let herself get beaten down. I mean, the man she fuckin' LOVED was stolen by the enemy. Her best friend became the Priestess of the enemy. Nuriko, Mitsukake, Chiriko, Hotohori—they all fuckin DIED…"

He caught himself as his voice broke. He was silent for a moment, and he looked away from Laguna, but then he turned back as though there was no problem. "An' she held 'em as they did. An' she told 'em how much they meant ta her, how much she'd miss 'em. And then she got up an did it all again. She fuckin' got up even when she knew she was just gonna get beat down again. When Tama, her boy—when he got all screwed up by the mind- poison an' tried ta kill her, she just stood there. She said that, if she was gonna die, she didn' blame him at all 'cause it wasn't his fault, an' that she'd just let him run her through."

Laguna swallowed hard. "What a woman."

Tasuki's face turned to him, burning with pain and barely-held rage. "Woman? Shit! Miaka wasn't even sixteen! She wasn't any woman yet!" A tear ran down his face. "She wasn't even allowed to grow up. It all had ta just happen fer her. One day she's a kid, the next she has ta watch everything she loves die."

"Was she all right?" Laguna found that he feared the answer. If her lover killed her, if she died just when she needed the most to live…what justice could there be in the universe?

"That made Tama remember her, 'cause she wasn't afraid. An' we beat the enemy. An' she got to go home an' take Tama with her, an' marry him, an' they've got kids now. They're happy. An' they damn well deserve it! If she'd died, I don' know what I could've ever trusted again." Laguna shivered at the sentiment, which so closely echoed his own silent one. "I understand that. Good for her. She should have happiness, and I hope she is left well by it." Tasuki eyed him warily. "Why do ya agree so easy with me?" Laguna shrugged. "Because I've known people like that who deserved better than the universe gave them." He said softly, thinking of Julia, who he had loved first of all, who taught him how to love. Without her, there would never have been anything between he and Raine. And she had not gotten what, by rights, the world should have given her for her goodness. Tasuki left off his studying of the man. "Well. Moon's set—it's time ta wake Chichiri an' Link up. Their turn."

Laguna nodded. "Good night, then, Tasuki." The ex-bandit took a long pull off the skin. "Yeah. G'night." Tasuki went over to Chichiri and gently shook him awake, and then did so for Link. Weary, he stumbled to the ground, dragging Link's blanket along with him. "Thanks for the drinks!" Laguna said softly. Tasuki waved him off, turned over, and fell asleep. As Laguna felt the gentle arms of sleep taking him, he gave one wordless prayer for all of those that deserved better than they got. The last thing he saw before sleep stole him away was a flying ember, trying to make it to the stars. 

__

Like that, we are… He thought. _We dance, and we fall, and we're so bright that we burn….and in the end we all go cold…but some of us are bright enough to leave an image after them… _ Everything faded into darkness. 

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	4. Masks

Sorry this took me so long--I was in England with my boyfriend, getting my view of the world expanded...this is a newly-edited version of this chapter, since upon rereading it, I realized I could flesh it out a bit.  
  
Standard disclaimers. I don't even own the computer I'm typing this on.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
MASKS  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Link heard the easy tread of feet and opened his eyes. _Dark. Quiet. Grass smells funny. Woodsmoke. Oh_.  
  
He sat up and yawned.  
  
"Gimme that." Tasuki said softly, taking the elf's blanket. Bug-eyed, Link watched as the bandit lord bundled up on the grass and promptly fell asleep. "Oh, all right." He replied belatedly. "No problem."  
  
Chichiri snickered. "It's a funny habit he has, no da. Has a hard time sleeping if he starts out with a cold blanket."  
  
Link smiled at the monk. Despite the late hour, his mind was clear. "What exactly do you think we are keeping watch against?" He asked. He knew why he would do it---it was foolishness to do otherwise, in this place that none of them knew. But if this wise-man had knowledge he did not, it could prove useful.  
  
Chichiri shrugged. "I have no idea...but this is an unfamiliar place, so it seems wise." His silvery hair caught the moonlight like water, and for an instant Link wished that he'd let Saria teach him how to paint. _What a picture this would make! _ The longing passed, and he smiled.  
  
"So, then, friend monk, what shall we do to pass the time? Were you one of the Princess' guardians, I would suggest combat training...but I have little doubt that you and I would only come out of that battle injured, with nothing learned from it, for we're too closely matched. I have not my games of skill with me, and the night is too lovely to spend staring mindlessly into the darkness."  
  
The monk sighed. "I have a question for you, Link." The elf raised one eyebrow.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Who do you serve?"  
  
The blunt query surprised Link. "I serve...those who deserve it. Innocents and children and people who have need of me. Those who can't protect themselves enough."  
  
Chichiri cocked his head to one side. "How did you come to this service? Were you a guardian?"  
  
Link grinned openly. "Of sorts. I help to protect a land and her peoples from one evil in particular, and smaller ones in general. There are only eight of us who work so, so at times it is hard, but worth it always. Why do you ask?"  
  
"I have...noted something." Chichiri said slowly. "Each of the four of us are protectors of our chosen places. You of your country, Tasuki-chan and I of ours, and Laguna is ruler of his...could that be part of the reason that we are here? Could whatever has brought us here have need of us?"  
  
Link frowned in thought. "I could not say." He admitted finally. The men were silent for a moment, before Link turned to the monk with a smile.  
  
"My turn."  
  
"Demo---what?"  
  
"You asked a question. It's my turn."  
  
"Oh. All right." Chichiri shrugged.  
  
"Why do you wear the mask?"  
  
Chichiri started. "You-you can tell?"  
  
Link grinned. "I have some passing acquaintance with masks, as well as with their consequences. Do you wear it to hide yourself, or protect the world?"  
  
Chichiri shrugged. He was no longer sensitive to remarks about the mask--- living with Tasuki had long ago cured him of that---but the elf's straightforwardness made him a little uncomfortable.  
  
"I first wore it to protect myself...now it is more of an acknowledgement of penance. I no longer feel the need to wear it, but what is underneath sometimes frightens people."  
  
Link looked up with curiosity. "Might I see?"  
  
Chichiri sighed and lifted the lifelike mask from his face. Link gasped.  
  
"Does it surprise you?" Chichiri asked with a note of sourness in his voice.  
  
Link shook his head abruptly. "No---no. It was merely the color of your eye. You look...much like someone I once knew."  
  
Chichiri smiled in relief, surprised at himself. Why should this one's opinion about an old scar matter? He shook his head.  
  
"My turn again. Ah...a simple question. What is your goal in life?"  
  
Link threw back his head and laughed. "Simple? Ha!" He chuckled for a few moments more before answering. "I am to be married to Malon." He sighed. "Within the week, actually. I miss her so much already...I wonder if we'll make it back soon."  
  
He looked over at the monk. "I want nothing more illustrious than a home in the Kokiri forest with my wife, and a family. I can keep her safe from the Lost Ones until they learn to recognize her, and when they do, the forest is hers to roam through as she would. Nothing enters that forest without permission, so my family would be safe. My children will be safe."  
  
He sank into thought and silence.  
  
  
  
"Oh.my turn." He said quietly. "I ask the same of you; what do you want?"  
  
Chichiri shrugged. "Things this past year have been fine. I could not ask for more, na no da. I have a good friend in Tasuki, and a good country in Kounan, and I am respected if not truly loved, no da. What more could I deserve?"  
  
An old sorrow showed a little in his voice, and Link sighed. "No wife, then? No family?"  
  
The monk started. "No." He said quietly. "No wife, never any children, and my family died the same night she did."  
  
  
  
Link bit his lip in frustration. "I'm sorry, Chichiri." He said lamely. "I- "  
  
"Forget it." The monk rose to his feet and paced the small campsite, his gaze ever on the horizon.  
  
Eleven steps.  
  
Turn.  
  
Eleven steps.  
  
Turn.  
  
  
  
Link sighed. He walked over to where the single saddlebag he'd had his hand on when the silver light took him had been dropped, and undid the ties on it. Carefully, he lifted the top flap.  
  
Chichiri watched him as he paced.  
  
The elf reached into the bag and pulled out something wrapped in stained leather. His hand dipped in again and came back with something small, which he gripped carefully. Chichiri watched in amazement as he lifted out an improbably high number of items.  
  
Despite himself, the monk came over in interest. "I recognize very few of these things, no da. What are they for?"  
  
Link grinned. I'll take you through all of it; you might need to know. If I get injured, you're the one who I'd trust with the knowledge. We're similar, you and I..."  
  
He held up a handful of what looked like chestnuts. "These are Deku Nuts. You throw them and they explode, blinding the enemy." He dug further into his pack.  
  
  
  
  
  
"Ah! This." He pressed a tiny jar into the monk's hand. Chichiri almost dropped it in surprise. It glowed brightly from within with a rosy light, and it warmed and tingled against his fingers.  
  
  
  
"This is a fairy in a bottle." Link said.  
  
Chichiri looked at him blankly.  
  
"No, really. If any of us are gravely hurt, she will come from the bottle and heal us, then fly away. She chooses to be there, and should she need to leave, nothing is holding her. The glass and cork are....sympathetic magic, I suppose. They do not bind her, but are part of the agreement. In return, should her people ever need aid, I have promised to grant it."  
  
Chichiri nodded dumbly, studying the bottle. Suddenly, a tiny rosy hand pressed up against the inside of it, along his index finger, and a bright female face smiled at him.  
  
"Amazing, no da!"  
  
He watched the sprite, whose body was giving out the lovely light. The creature gave a high laugh, muffled by the glass, and waved.  
  
"Oh, she likes the attention." Link said with a smile. "It's not often that I get to sit down and admire them."  
  
Chichiri could see, outlined by light, the shape of her--all miniature curves and grace. Her feet touched against one wall of the jar for a second, her toes flattening against the glass. The brightest of the light, he noted, sprang from the delicate wings that rose from her back. He laughed in delight.  
  
"A lifegiving spirit choosing to be held? I have never heard of such a thing! When I get home, I must investigate this, na no da."  
  
Link nodded. "Similar though we are, there are some differences between your world and mine." He said quietly.  
  
"What other things do you have, no da??" The two lost themselves studying first the contents of Link's bag, and then Chichiri's. The monk explained his skill in return.  
  
"I concentrate my aura, na no da. I could teach you, if you liked."  
  
"I would. How did you learn the skill? All of my power-or almost all of it--comes from the Sages who I work with to protect Hyrule...if there is some latent skill in myself, it could be of much use."  
  
  
  
And though they were alert to any noise or movement, they were surprised when they looked up at the sky.  
  
"The sun is rising, no da. Time to wake the others and get moving." Link nodded silently and moved to wake Laguna. 


	5. The Guard

Standard disclaimers...None of this is mine! (^_^)  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Dark eyes watched the four travelers. **Soon.**. the figure muttered. **Very soon indeed**  
  
  
  
It seemed to Laguna that the grasslands went on forever. Seeing this setting inevitably made him think of Raine, and of his stolen twenty years; of what a shock it was to finally meet their son; of the blow to his heart when he met Julia's daughter, who looked so much like her...He sighed.  
  
"Moody son of a bitch, aren't ya?" Tasuki asked, looking sidelong at him with a fanged grin.  
  
  
  
Laguna shrugged. "It's this field...my wife is buried in a place much like this." He sighed again.  
  
"Never mind." Tasuki said softly. For all his pretended hardness, he knew better than to tease about some subjects.  
  
Chichiri grinned. _Evidently I did manage to teach him **some ** tactfulness. _ He thought.  
  
He gazed at the horizon. Something flickered there, a tiny shape...He gestured to Link.  
  
"You still have use of both your eyes, no da. Look there, and tell me what you see?"  
  
The elf paused and glared into the distance.  
  
"I see...a town. Or at least a cluster of buildings. I can't manage to make out people, but it looks as though one of them is an inn; there's a sign hanging from a bar above the door."  
  
Tasuki drew up short. "You have got to be shitting me. You can't possibly see--"  
  
Link looked at him mildly and he fell silent. "I can, bandit lord. I would suggest that, if we are to make any sense of this place whatsoever, you would cease to doubt me."  
  
Chichiri said "Ahh, Tasuki."  
  
Tasuki grimaced. "Oh? Ya think so, prettyboy? I could have ya on the ground in a second, ya little pansy! Why don' ya--"  
  
"TASUKI!"  
  
"WHAT? I'm in the middle of a CONVERSATION here!" The bandit spun around to see the monk. Chichiri, wordless, merely pointed.  
  
"Oh."  
  
Men--warriors, by the look of them--were approaching on horseback.  
  
Unconsciously, the group drew tight together, alert and ready for battle. Tasuki drew his tessen, Link's hand strayed toward the hilt of his blade, Chichiri breathed deeply, drawing on his own energy and the determination of his companions, and Laguna...  
  
Laguna sighed. _I am only now beginning to realize the trouble I am in._ He thought. _I haven't my machine gun. I could only spellcast, but only certain spells, if I am to take the elf-warrior's failure as any lesson, and I don't know which. If it were two or three people only, on foot, I could take them at hand to hand...but more than that? And horseback? Not a chance._  
  
Chichiri nodded at him. "I can see you're worried, no da--don't be, no da! You have some magic, right?"  
  
Laguna nodded.  
  
"Well, then, stay close to me and we'll see what can be done, na no da. I can help you, until you're on your feet again."  
  
Laguna sighed gratefully. _If Kiros and Ward were here, they'd be all I needed. But they're not, and I need to deal with it._  
  
The horsemen were drawing near with amazing speed. The warriors braced themselves. "Perhaps they only desire parley?" Laguna asked quietly.  
  
Link shrugged. "Either way, there are more of them than of us. Let's stay on our guard." The riders could be clearly seen now; seven of them, in light mail and leather. Their horses were slender, explaining their lack of plate mail.  
  
Link growled. "Idiots. They shouldn't be racing their horses over ground like this. They'll stumble and break bones, and then what will they do?"  
  
Tasuki chuckled grimly. "Fer' certain, these boys are new ta their job." Tasuki, as leader of the Mt. Reikaku bandits, was well versed in horsemanship.  
  
Chichiri sighed under his breath. _What a time for those two to be making peace._  
  
The horsemen were a hundred and fifty feet away, if that. And now they were upon them.  
  
"STAND DOWN, in the name of the Queen!" The foremost rider bellowed.  
  
The warriors didn't change position, didn't lower weapons.  
  
"How dare you profane the Sacred Fields?" He drew his horse up feet from them.  
  
Chichiri tried to speak. "Um-oh...we are not from this place. We do not know your rules or strictures--"  
  
The guard snorted. "I am certain. From your garb, it is true that you might be madmen." He tapped at Chichiri's kesa with his sword. "But that is no excuse to have built a fire on the land of the dead!"  
  
Link studied the men surreptitiously. The speaker had the insignia of a charging lion across his hauberk, and the other men did not. He was clean- shaven, with sharp green eyes that roved over the party, and muscles that bulged under the mail.  
  
"You must all be insane. To have walked with the dead."  
  
One of his warriors muttered words meant only for his captain's ears, but Link heard them easily.  
  
"Captain, are they perhaps dead themselves? Filled with arrows, they would not cause harm to anyone."  
  
The captain shook his head curtly. "They breathe, and the average dead forget to add that little detail. And besides, when have any of our peoples dressed thus?"  
  
He had never turned his eyes from the party. "I do not know what to do with you." He grumbled. "No one has dared the Royal decree in centuries. It will...impress...my lady if I take you before her, rather than pronouncing sentence here."  
  
He gestured to his men, who dismounted and came forward. "Weapons, now." They held out their hands. "Give us every inch of steel you have, and anything else besides."  
  
Tasuki almost started whistling. _They must've not had war for a long time, now, then. They're idiots_. He handed forward his tessen. As he walked toward the guards, the reassuring weight of his hidden knives reassured him greatly.  
  
Link removed his sword, sheathe and all, murmuring. "My sword is bespelled. I would beware drawing her. She has a tendency to harm those she does not know, thinking they are thieves."  
  
The Captain raised one eyebrow. "You warn us first? Strange traveler indeed."  
  
Link handed his sword and shield to the Captain, disdaining the guard that came forward. The guard flushed, and would have growled, but a quick gesture from the Captain silenced him.  
  
Chichiri sighed and handed them his staff. "I am only a poor monk, with no wealth or weapons." He said mournfully. "Only the staff of my father, which I must lean upon to walk."  
  
Laguna shrugged. "I have nothing."  
  
"Not even an eating knife?" The Captain asked suspiciously.  
  
"Would you prefer me to strip naked, sir? I have nothing at all, being newly come to this place."  
  
The Captain glanced at the sky, considering the suggestion. "No. Night is falling. We must return to the garrison, and from there, we shall decide what to do with you.  
  
Tasuki stifled a chuckle at the fear plain on his face. _We were out there long enough, and nothing ever bothered us. _He thought_. So what is he afraid of?_


	6. Prisoners

DISCLAIMER: I own all of this-all of it! Bwhahahahahaha! Tasuki, Chichiri, Link, Laguna--they run my bath and wash my dishes and give me seven-hour massages if I so much as BLINK at them! Bwahahahahahaha!  
  
No, really!  
  
*manic laughter,, and the arrival of nice young men in their clean white coats*  
  
  
  
  
  
  
IMPRSIONED  
  
  
  
Tasuki yawned.  
  
_So much for this being an inn. _ He smirked at that for a moment, before remembering that the sign the elf had seen had indeed been hanging over the door. After all, which of them could have known that the symbol on it meant 'prison?' All of the warriors now shared the same cell in a garrison at the edge of what was referred to as "The Fields of the Dead."  
  
"Superstition." He muttered.  
  
He grimaced and kicked at the straw that littered the floor. Barely enough to scrape together to form one mattress; the night's sleep had been less than comfortable.  
  
Chichiri caught his eye. "At least it's clean straw, no da. We've been in inns with less."  
  
Link chuckled. "I've been in prisons with less, certainly."  
  
Laguna, from his place under the single window, sighed deeply. "So." He shook his head, studying the tiny cell. "This does get more and more confusing."  
  
Chichiri nodded, but was silent in thought.  
  
Link studied the room intently, though he had already done so several times. Cemented stone walls, each perhaps fifteen feet long. Uncomfortably low ceiling for a grown man, which was why they all sat on the cold floor. Straw had been pitched about for an attempt at sanitation, but the privy was only a crude hole chipped from the cobbled floor into the earth. At the front of the room was a sturdy wooden door; at the back of it was an arrow- slit for ventilation, which also served to let a little dim light filter in. _Nothing of any use. _ He thought for the fifth time. He shrugged.  
  
"Damn guards." Tasuki muttered. "Wish they hadn' taken all our stuff. I feel naked without my tessen."  
  
Chichiri laughed softly, and the bandit blushed.  
  
"'S true! Ya shouldn' make fun a me for it. At least I still--" Chichiri clamped a hand over the bandit's mouth. The monk shook his head. "I know, na no da. I too wish that my things, or Link's, had been left to us, but what could we really expect, no da? We'll just have to wait and see what happens." Chichiri mouthed the word "listeners" and nodded. Tasuki grinned. The bandit scratched his shoulders and his side, letting his left hand detour down to his boot, and nodded.  
  
"Those guards weren't half as thorough as they thought they were, no da." The monk whispered. Tasuki laughed grimly. "Yeah, like anyone could take _yer_ weapon away." He murmured. "Have ta cut yer brain out."  
  
Across the room, Laguna pulled his knees up under his chin. His dark hair fell over his face, and he turned his head sideways on his knees to watch the closed door. _I'm useless to them. _ He thought sadly. _They're all warriors from places that are at least similar to this. They know how to deal with camping and foraging and living in this time. They've never even dreamed of a machine gun. I wish I even had a knife._  
  
The thick door creaked and swung slowly open, bringing him back to the world. The hugely muscled guard who had 'escorted' them to the garrison stepped through the narrow doorway, followed closely by two more junior guards. His face was undreadable as he surveyed the warriors.  
  
"Ya sure come with a lotta help, big guy." Tasuki drawled. "Lookit this place--we can't _stand_ in here, much less fight ya. Why bring yer buddies along?"  
  
His face was a study in insolence.  
  
One fiery eyebrow raised, and--even though he was sprawled on the floor with his wrists crossed beneath his head, he somehow managed to look down his nose at the guards.  
  
"That's enough!" One of the younger men snarled.  
  
The large guard raised one hand to silence him. "Kenrick, none of that here. These four haven't been convicted of any crimes, yet." The third guard was silent.  
  
"I am Captain Osso." The huge man continued. "First in the ranks of Her Majesty's loyal servants. We are, here, two day's ride by horseback from her Imperial City and her fortress--she has commanded that I bring you to her feet, that she might study those who have come unaided from the lands of the Dead." He gestured. "Rise. You're all coming with me. If, as you say, you have no idea of the...tradition...in this Kingdom, you might escape with your limbs intact. If not, your lives are forfeit. I would suggest that you meditate on your god of choice, for you may have little enough time left for that."  
  
Without another word, he walked back through the doorway. The other two strode forward, obviously willing to assist the movement of the warriors.  
  
Link stood up and moved between the others and the guards. Innocently, he asked "So! When do we get to eat? We're all very hungry."  
  
Tasuki stared. _What's that fucking idiot doing? _ He wondered.  
  
The bandit glanced at Chichiri and Laguna, trying to see if they knew. Chichiri was obviously as puzzled as he, but Laguna wore a look of relief as he stretched and pulled stiffened muscles.  
  
_Oh_. Tasuki thought. _He is a lot older than he looks. Things are slowing down for him. Smart, Link, to figure that out before one of the guards decided to beat the poor guy. _ He glared at the thought, and the guard nearest him shied away.  
  
The guard across from Link--the one called Kenrick--only frowned. "If Captain Osso decides you merit food, it will come. Have patience."  
  
The warriors, flanked before and behind by the guards, left the cell.  
  
Tasuki straightened gratefully, feeling his spine pop. "Aah. Fuck, it hurts to hunker down so bad."  
  
Link and Chichiri were doing the same; only Laguna, smallest of them, had showed little discomfort in the cramped cell.  
  
Link yawned and shuffled, kicking his boots together. Tasuki had noted this odd habit before Osso's men found them, but hadn't remarked on it. The elf caught his eye.  
  
"Itch." He said succinctly.  
  
"Oh." Tasuki understood. He was not the only one of their number with hidden knives.  
  
"No talking." Kenrick snapped.  
  
"Yes sir, mister Emperor of Konan." Tasuki said sharply. He put one hand on his hip and minced through the hallway, kicking his feet out before him. "I'm Kendick, the High Ruler of the world. I can-" Kenrick spun to face the bandit. "Shut up, peasant, or you'll taste steel!"  
  
" 'Taste steel?' Come on, boy, you can do-" A forestalling hand on his chest silenced him and he shrugged. "Whatever. Let's get movin'." Link smiled and removed the hand.  
  
Osso, who had been watching them from the corner of the hallway, joined them with a frown. "You would do well to remember that you are captives." He said curtly.  
  
Tasuki grinned. "Yessir! We're captive-bound by yer brave guardsmen." He minced another three steps before falling back into the line.  
  
Osso led them through the unremarkable hall to a wide wooden door. It opened into a stableyard. Link almost laughed aloud at the sight. Ten horses, saddled and ready, stood before them as they blinked in the early sunlight. Evidently the Captain wasn't foolish enough to have only three guards as escort for four men--six in total were coming along.  
  
Osso turned and faced them. "I'm going to leave your hands unbound." He said.  
  
Kenrick choked in dismay. "But-" Osso's glare silenced him. "Some of the territory we'll be passing through is dangerous, and I can't spare the time to protect you. You are each allowed your own horses, as well. I am taking your statements of innocence as they appear, but be warned; should even one of you attempt escape, the lives of all of you are mine to do with as I wish."  
  
Chichiri nodded. "We understand, Captain. We are just eager to have all of this confusion cleared up, na no da."  
  
Osso didn't reply. "All right, men. Mount up. We need to be there by tomorrow's nightfall, so speed is essential."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The next chapter will be up soon-the day after I get three more reviews. Come on, people! If you like what you see, drop me a review--if you DON'T like what you see, drop me one anyway. Tell me how I can make this better!  
  
-Kaneta 


	7. Treating with Royalty

Hiyee!  
  
*thinking quickly*  
  
Ooh! I got three reviews in TWO DAYS? Hmmm... Maybe this IS worth continuing, no da.  
  
Standard disclaimers--I don't own Tasuki or Chichiri or Link or Laguna, much as I wish I could...Watase-sama, if you're reading this(yeah, RIGHT), could you send me Chichiri or Tasuki for Christmas? Either one? I promise that I would give them a nice place to sleep and good food every night and lots of people who respected them as playmates! *begging* Please?  
  
This chapter was TROUBLE! It goes slowly at first--well, it goes slowly a lot--but it's necessary that it do so for plot building, and I promise that the next one will show you all some more action. Ja ne! Kaneta  
  
  
  
  
  
Trouble On The Throne  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The huge city walls loomed ahead of them, and for a moment Chichiri felt the caress of uneasiness down his body. _I don't like city walls. _ He stifled a shudder, surprised at himself. After spending so much time traveling, he was unused to anything blocking the horizon.  
  
He shook his head, resolutely ignoring the change in his senses as they passed through the gate, and as stone stretched out to either side and above him...finally they were through, and he sighed in relief.  
  
  
  
Laguna looked around in awe as they rode through the city. _It's **huge!** _ He thought in wonder. _How can a civilization like this build a city so large? _ People were everywhere. Laguna noted with envy(feeling every bruise intimately) that none of the people they passed were mounted. _Makes sense...what would happen if everyone here was on a horse? _ Osso led them around the busy marketplace, toward the center of the city.  
  
The Palace--which they drew ever nearer to-- was a sprawling mass in the heart of the city, itself enclosed in heavy walls, but these of smooth white stone rather then rough-hewn granite. Osso led them to the Prisoner's Gate(for Tasuki heard Kenrick laugh about this under his breath)and a curt command was enough for the gatekeeper to let them in.  
  
Osso turned to study them.  
  
"You'll be shown to your cell, but I can say that you shouldn't have to wait very long. It's not often that people come from the Fields..." He dragged out the last word and fell silent, his face still. "Ah. If you speak truth, and you know not anything of our land, then perhaps..."  
  
Osso shook his head, and his voice was strong again. "You are not the first that have come from elsewhere. I will tell you no more than that."  
  
Laguna frowned. "But you said--"  
  
Osso waved, and the four warriors were led roughly to an outbuilding a short way from the Palace, and from there to a cell little better than the one they'd shared in the garrison.  
  
As soon as the door shut behind them, Tasuki burst into laughter. "They're a bunch'a fucking MORONS!" He crowed. "Why'd tha prison be built into the same place as tha palace? That makes no SENSE! Why'd we be put inta here?"  
  
Chichiri said softly "Because we're important--and because, the second we went through the palace gate, I couldn't 'feel' anything, no da. This place is shielded, na no da. My power--and, probably, Link's and Laguna's-- are useless."  
  
Tasuki choked into silence.  
  
"Oh."  
  
With that sobering answer, none of them felt like talking. But after a few minutes the silence was almost painful, and Laguna spoke. "So...what exactly is going to happen to us here? My world hasn't had royalty in two thousand years, so I really don't know what to expect."  
  
Link shrugged. "We'll be taken for an audience, and if we're lucky, and she is a just ruler, she'll hear us out. If she is a tyrant, we can only hope to amuse her long enough to escape. Both choices are equally likely, I'm afraid. Just keep on your guard, and if you're uncertain of what to do, look at us." His voice held no trace of condescension, and Laguna was relieved. "Thanks." He said gratefully. The elf ducked his head. "Naught to thank me for. In my position, you would do the same for me."  
  
  
  
Osso was true to his word; They sat for an hour at the most before the door swung noisily open. A strange guard stood there, dressed in plain blue and silver livery. The only ornament he wore was a slim silver brooch hooked to his collar. He was slim and tall, and had a sword at his hip, but wore no armor. "Rise, gentlemen." He said in an accented voice. "Her Ladyship would have words with thee."  
  
Tasuki eyed the guard suspiciously. _How come he is alone, against four of us? I don't like this at all. We could easily overpower him, so I assume that this is a test of our innocence. If we try to escape, there are probably another ten hidden guards along the way waiting to kill us_.  
  
Satisfied with this reasoning, he followed the guard.  
  
They walked from the building, and toward the Palace proper, and Tasuki grinned to see five more guards appear from behind them to flank the warriors. _Thought so._  
  
They walked up a stone stair, to a huge wooden door which sat open, and the guard that led them had words with the young men that stood to either side of it. Laguna noted that they too were dressed in the silver-and-blue of the strange guard; _Livery, then._ He thought. Past the doors was a wide hall with a lonely run of carpet down the middle of it, barely wide enough for two to walk abreast, and from there, another tall door. Link could hear the chattering of many people behind it even before the heralds opened it.  
  
"Give us your names, foreigners." The guard murmured. They replied in the same soft tones, and the man strode into the room before them. None of the captives could see far into the room, for there were windows above them that cast sunlight into their eyes, and the room before them was lit only by the occasional high window.  
  
The audience room(for, with at least a hundred people scattered about in it, and a raised dais at the end it could have been nothing else)fell silent at his approach. He raised his head and called in a loud voice : "Thy Illustrious Majesty the Princess Royal of Aleran, I bring before thee four travelers; the Priest Chichiri, and the Warriors, Link Hyrulson, Laguna Loire, and Tasuki Genrou." The names were unfamiliar to his lips, but he continued without a pause. "They have come before thy graceful light to beg pardon for, all unknowing, they crossed into the Fields of the Fallen Ones and did cause there to be fires laid, though I shall say that said fires were carefully dealt with by them." He stepped aside, and the guards behind the four elbowed them forward.  
  
Link's eyes adjusted quickly to the change in light, so he was the first to see Her Highness. She was small and had dark hair to her waist; her skin was pale, and she was slender as a blade. Her face was delicate and looked as though it were prone to smiling. One eyebrow was barely lifted in what could have been amusement. _Under other circumstances, I think I could greatly like this woman. _ Link thought.  
  
Tasuki, next through the door, saw her smile at the party, and felt some hope that they might not have to fight their way free. His eyes fell at her feet, where--  
  
_My tessen!_  
  
Their weapons all lay on a deep rug that had been spread at her feet. He grinned despite himself, and had to force his face into peace. _Let the bitch try what she wants, if I can get my hands on that I could have us all free in a second._  
  
Chichiri sighed in extreme relief as he stepped through the door, for suddenly the shield that had been blocking his chi from feeling the world was gone. It was as though a limb had suddenly woken; every scent, every sound, every mote of dust caught in the sunlight from the high windows was deliciously clear and unique to him.  
  
Laguna blinked as his eyes made the transition from bright light to dimmer shadow. He glanced at Tasuki's back as the ex-bandit stiffened, and he noted Chichiri's deep sigh.  
  
_That, at least, bodes well for us._  
  
Deepest in the shadow was the dais and throne at the end of the room. Curious--for he had of course never seen a Princess--Laguna willed his eyes to cut through the gloom and alight on her face, hoping that it would not be considered too forthright to gaze eye to eye with royalty.  
  
What he saw made his blood run cold.  
  
For an instant, his heart stopped. Mouth dry as dust, one word escaped his lips:  
  
"Julia?" 


	8. Old Friends

Longer chapter this time, folks! You know the drill--if you like it, please review, and I'll put up another chapter! If you don't like it...well, review anyway, please. It might be a little longer than usual between chapters--not any three months, as happened when I was on vacation, but a while longer because I am getting a job. Blerrrugh.  
  
  
  
  
  
I don't own Julia, I don't own Tasuki, or Chichiri, or Link, or Laguna, or the jeans that I'm wearing today, or the house I'm living in, or the keyboard I'm typing on, or the fold-up chair I'm sitting in. Get the point? ;)  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
OLD FRIENDS  
  
  
  
  
  
Time slowed for Laguna as her name, unbidden, fell from his lips.  
  
The courtiers to either side of him might as well have been statues, for all that he noticed their movement. The air suddenly seemed chill to him, and charged with electricity; his mouth was dry and the blood pounded in his temples, but all of that was secondary, hardly noticeable, as her hazel eyes fell on him.  
  
Her perfect lips parted, and a tiny line marred her brow, as she saw him; her right hand flew to her mouth, and the sound of her strangled gasp fell like a stone into the now-silent hall.  
  
Her Guards, thinking that her reaction was one of fear, moved to block Laguna from her and drew their weapons as one, but their motion jerked her from her shock. Lifting her skirts, which were crimson(_She always did look good in red,_ Laguna thought uselessly), she flew down the dais and across the deep carpet towards him.  
  
Tasuki's eyebrows fairly vanished into his hairline as he cursed in surprise, and Chichiri yelled something that Laguna didn't hear, for here she was, a foot away--and then she was in his arms.  
Her dark hair fell about the both of them as she held him.  
His arms came up around her, one long-fingered hand running along her shoulders as he sobbed in wonder. "Julia--Where have you been all these years? What--"  
He fell silent in disbelief. Her hazel eyes sparkled with tears as she gazed up at him.  
  
"Laguna...I..."  
  
She shook her head and laughed, and the sound of it startled her courtiers from their amazement.  
"This is not the place nor time, my only." She murmured, composing herself instantly.  
She stood tall, and Laguna was suddenly struck by how royal she was. This was not a woman that played the piano in bars for other people's amusement! This was a Princess, and her face left no doubt of it.  
  
As she turned to her courtiers, Laguna couldn't help but notice the strands of silver in her chocolate hair, or how long that hair was now--well below her waist. She was still as slender as the young woman he had known, but her eyes held wisdom. No wrinkles had yet settled in her face, but there was the faint trace of many years of smiling and frowning. _Her hands, though! _ Laguna thought. _She still has the hands of a girl._  
His ears finally let him listen to her.  
  
"I apologize, my people, but today's audience is at an end. This is my best and oldest friend, and I would hold counsel with him."  
  
Without another word, clutching Laguna's hand in hers, she turned and strode regally up the carpet again. Rather than climbing the dais, she went through a small door to the left of it.  
  
"Fuck." Tasuki said succinctly. "Follow 'er, then?" Link, his eyes wide, only nodded, and Chichiri shrugged. "Nothing better to do, no da." Tasuki made a brief detour to grab his tessen before they followed Laguna and Julia through the door.  
  
  
  
As soon as they were no longer under the eyes of her people, Julia whirled to face Laguna. "How did you get here? What is going on? This is--I mean- -I do not understand!"  
  
Her hand had not left his, and the other one climbed to his lapel, caressing it despite her confusion.  
  
Laguna grinned. "I have no idea what is going on. I was in bed when it happened. I remember a flash of silver light, like lightning, almost, and then I was in the middle of this field, and there were these other three, and one of them isn't human, not that I'm sure the other two are, and neither of them are from here either, and we decided to go South because at home we all live in the South, and then Captain Osso caught up to us, and so here I am."  
  
He ran out of breath, and let his words wind down, still amazed to see the woman he had loved a lifetime ago. Late, of course, understanding struck him.  
  
"Julia--Queen? I don't understand! How did you become royalty?"  
  
He shook his head roughly, trying to settle his brains. "I'll believe anything. I'm more than half convinced that I'm still in bed."  
  
Julia was laughing under her breath, and at his final statement let it all come pouring out of her. Her high, joyful laughter echoed from the ceiling and Laguna grinned in reply.  
  
"I...I suppose that you know about my husband." The term, from her lips, held no love. "After you vanished, he was so kind to me." Her gaze sharpened. "I wept for you! Where did you go? He told me you were dead!"  
  
"He sent me on a suicide mission with Kiros and Ward. We left the army, but we couldn't get home. I almost died...I was sick for a very, very long time." He shrugged. "I would have come back if I could. In return for keeping me safe, I kept my healers safe. I ran the perimeter, killing monsters, and after a while, it was what I wanted. It let me heal in more ways than one."  
  
Julia's eyes were bright again. "That bastard hurt us both." She murmured. Laguna smiled. "Things work out, Julia. How did you get here?"  
  
"I left him. I fought to keep Rinoa--she was my daughter, and she was so beautiful, I wish you could have seen her. But he had more money, and certainly more sway with the government, so he won her; and I was told to never attempt to contact her again.  
  
"Anyway, one night I was walking out through the town, trying to get up the nerve to do anything that would change things, and I heard a voice. It was a man's voice, calm, quiet, and he was talking to me, but I couldn't see him anywhere.  
  
He said 'What have you to hold you here?' By that time I had nothing, and I told him so. 'Then, Daughter, would you go somewhere where you would be needed and loved?' I laughed at him. I thought I was delusional, probably ready to walk off a pier or something, so I said 'Oh, certainly. Take me somewhere that I can do good, and not get hurt by it.' And suddenly, there was a wind, and a silver light, and I passed out. I woke at the steps of this palace." Her voice was low, and her eyes gazed on something that Laguna could not see.  
  
"I was lucky. Had the guards found me first, I would have been hurried away, and I know not where I would be now. Instead, the first person to see me was the Queen.  
  
"The Queen had a habit of talking walks before the sun rose. Any normal royalty would have to fear assassins, or kidnappers, but she was a mage--a mage!--of no small skill, and nothing could come near her without knowing it. She was very old, though, and seeing me asleep on the steps of her palace touched something inside of her. She woke me, gently, and when I had tried to tell her what happened to me, she took me inside. 'Now, girl,' she said, 'Strange things happen in this kingdom, where the magic is thick, so I have no trouble believing you.'  
  
'I was twenty-five when I came here, Laguna. I was a girl, a child. Tatoria treated me as she would have one of her own children, had any of them survived more than a week from birth. She taught me the ways of Kerranon, this place, and in the end, she made me her heir. She died ten years ago, and by that time, her people knew and trusted me enough that there was no trouble when I took the throne. And Laguna--" She sighed now, shaking her head a little. "The thing of it is, I am doing good here, and though it is hard, and sometimes I do suffer for it, I am still able to do good. Your appearance worries me, happy as I am to see you."  
  
Laguna's mind was reeling from the tale. "Julia, I have no idea what is going on with me. I heard no voices."  
  
"Neither did we, na no da." Chichiri's voice came softly to them, and Julia stiffened.  
  
"Of course, there are three more."  
  
Neither she nor Laguna had noticed them standing in the doorway. "Introduce yourselves, please." She commanded, all manners again.  
  
Tasuki arched an eyebrow. "Fuckin' royalty." He said wryly, ignoring a glare from Link. "I am Genrou, Seishi to the Priestess of Suzaku Himself. This is Ri Houjun, fellow Seishi of the God Suzaku, and Warrior Monk for him also. "  
  
Chichiri was surprised at his sudden courtly language, but would not mention it before the Queen, regardless of whether or not Laguna knew her.  
  
Link smiled. "I am Link of Hyrule, Warrior to the Sages." He fell to one knee before Julia, bowing his head. "It is my honor to come to thy presence, lady."  
  
Julia ducked her head in return, acknowledging courtly ways. "And mine to have thee, Warriors. I take it you are all as confused by your presence here as I?"  
  
"No shit, girl!" Tasuki said. "What the fuck is going on here? That's all I want to know."  
  
Julia snickered before regaining her composure. "Well, then. It seems that we should speak with my Counselors." 


	9. Whispers

Usual disclaimers…blah, blah, blah…I own the Universe…blah, blah, blah…but not Tasuki, of course. He can own himself.

Tasuki moved quietly away from the council room and deliberating advisors.  
  
The whole idea of the thing bored him immensely, but when he told them all his obvious solution--send Link, Laguna, Chichiri and himself out to find the reason they'd arrived in the first place--the advisors had all glared at him as though he were some sort of intruder.  
  
So, out he went, snarling at the hand Laguna had laid atop Julia's wrist.  
  
Unfortunately, the winding halls of the castle quickly turned him around, and he found himself at a side entrance to the open audience room, where he wanted to be the least.  
  
Before any of the courtiers within could notice him, or that damned herald start tootling away again and shouting his name, he grabbed one of the huge velvet drapes and swung himself up along it.  
  
Belatedly, he worried that the long metal hooks that held it up--now sixty feet above his head--might not support his weight, but they had been well built of cast iron, and didn't even flex.  
When the tiled floor was forty feet below him, and a wide windowsill had appeared at his hip, he released the curtain and settled onto the stone.  
This far up, the words of the people below echoed up to him in strange whispers, and the thin music of the minstrels could barely be heard.  
  
Behind him, a leaded window looked out on a square of buildings, what looked like a salle, and a cluster of young students working with wooden blades. Tasuki smiled to himself, remembering Kouji's skill at teaching him a warrior's way, years ago. _I fell on my ass more times than I'd like to remember,_ he thought, watching a seven- or eight-year-old girl slashing and lunging deftly against a set of pells. _I'm lucky I had him, though. I wish he was here, so I'd have someone to talk to. Chiri's too busy, Laguna's too infatuated, and Link is--_  
  
"Hey, Tasski?"  
  
A voice called up to him gently, and he looked down in surprise. Link smiled up at the seishi, his hat slipping from his head as he tilted to see him properly.  
  
"Mind if I come up?" he asked, deftly catching the hat and forcing it down over his pointed ears.  
  
Tasuki gestured at the windowsill--it was ten feet long at least, another five deep, and he had no objections to sharing it.  
  
"Whatever." he said. "I'm scandalizing' 'em all enough already, I'm sure. Might as well have company, ne?"  
  
The elf grinned and began to scale the curtain in the same manner that the ex-bandit had used. Within moments, he had hauled himself up and slid back across the sill until his back was flat in the corner of it. He grinned ingenuously.  
  
"Hello." he said.  
  
Tasuki shook his head. "You confuse me." he said. "Matter 'f fact, this whole damn place confuses me. Even Hotohori's fuckin' court made more sense!"  
  
He pointed at a group of courtiers below, in their bird-bright clothing, ducking and bowing, obeying rules of politics that were older than the stone of the windowsill.  
  
"They dance, an' mince, an' move all around, takin' hours to say what they could say in a half-second. An' for what?"  
  
Link eyed him with a smile. "I quite agree--have always agreed, in fact. I take little pleasure in the Great Game, and never have; though there is something to finally winning a round, it is exhausting and benefits me little. The sword is much more straightforward."  
  
Tasuki chuckled despite himself. When the elf wasn't trying to lead him, he could enjoy his company.  
  
"So..." the seishi began. "What do ya think's gonna happen here? I mean, all those damn courtiers an advisors an counselors gettin' in the way's only gonna mess things up."  
  
Link shrugged. "While we're here, it's best to obey the laws before us." he said, "But they don't bind us. We have sworn no oaths, taken nothing from these people or their Queen, and thus owe their laws nothing."  
  
Tasuki snickered. "Makes sense. I mean, I wouldn't do what they wanted me to if I didn't think it was a _damn_ good idea, but for now we should. Fuck, we don't know anything about where we are, or who these people are, or if Julia is even who she fuckin' says she is."  
  
He jerked, watching the elf. "I mean..."  
  
Link shook his head, holding one finger to his lips. "I, too, have suspected that their Queen had more to do with Laguna's past than she has said. Perhaps they were lovers?"  
  
Tasuki stiffened with a cold grimace. _Into the dance of words, Suzaku damn it all. And now I have to play, too. Just because I'm so far above the court doesn't mean that nobody can hear me. _  
  
With a sigh, he threw himself into the game.  
  
"I think...I think they were together, yeah."  
  
Link's blue eyes glittered. "Well, then, let us ask our companion for more information when we retire this night." The courtly language fell easily from his tongue, and Tasuki forced back a laugh.  
  
"Indeed."  
  
Link smiled crookedly and tilted his head at the brightly-clothed people below. "The courtiers, if any can hear us, will have noticed the obvious-- Laguna and Julia were lovers at the very least. But they'll be discussing it just the way that we are."  
  
He whispered, so softly that no one standing even a foot away--if one could have stood midair, forty feet from the ground--could have heard.  
  
"But for now, hold your tongue on stronger matters, and I shall do the same. Speak no more of their lady but to praise her--though I shall tell you, I have reservations of my own about her."  
  
Tasuki nodded, also whispering. "You're right. We need to talk to Chiri; he'd know."  
  
"Would he? This world is as unfamiliar to you as it is to me."  
  
The bandit yawned. "Fuck, I'm hungry!" he said in a louder tone. Link laughed and reached into the pouch that ever hung at his belt.  
  
"Here." he said, pressing an apple into the seishi's hand. "For that matter, take this too." From the same seemingly endless belt-pack came a tiny vial of some bright liquid.  
  
"Save it, but if you get too tired you can drink it. No side-effects, and you'll come out of it feeling as though you have slept for a week."  
  
Tasuki grinned. "Damn! You're a useful guy ta have around, Link!"  
  
As he reached out to take the elf's shoulder, the trumpeters and heralds all started up at once. An intricate fanfare had barely died away before the head herald shouted "Her majesty, the Queen Julia, will now have audience!"  
  
Link bit back an oath. "And we're sitting in her _window_."  
  
Tasuki laughed, trying and failing to smother it in his hands. None of the courtiers had even noticed his ascent of the curtain, or Link's, and the velvet hid them still from view.  
  
"Nothin' ta do for it but wait, then." he murmured.  
  
Link shrugged. "I'm quiet."  
  
But even as the words left his lips, and the Queen strode into the room below them, both warriors heard a soft thread of sound. Their heads both turned up toward the rafters, from where the whispers fell.  
  
"The only thing to do for it is to kill all four of them. They're too dangerous to the Cause." 


	10. Complications

Disclaimer, for this chapter and the last:(bad Kaneta! Forgetting to put a disclaimer up in your hurry to post! Bad!) Don't own Link or Chichiri or Tasuki or Laguna or Julia or Rome or Poland or the way that it smells during the rain in the summer in Arizona. Probably never will, either.  
  
Oh--this chapter is SHORT. Which, with my writing, only happens when the next one is going to be unnaturally long. Didn't quite make seven hundred words with this one, so shall I try for twenty-five hundred with the next? Since my average one is about twelve, that should kinda make up for it.  
  
Hope you enjoy--and if you do, review! I'm still struggling with the belief that this fanfic probably isn't worth it, so tell me, folks--do you want me to scrap it and pull it down, or continue? I do know where it's going now, though...  
  
  
  
COMPLICATIONS  
  
  
  


  
  
Tasuki's angry eyes met Link's startled green ones. "What the fuck?" He kept his voice low, but his hands clenched of their own volition.  
  
"Can't I go anywhere without someone tryin ta kill me?"  
  
Link waved him to silence. "Listen." he whispered. Julia strode on below, oblivious to the plotting going on over her head.  
  
"What about Her Majesty?" The single voice continued. Seeming to recieve an answer, it murmured "You are correct, as ever. For now, she is quite useful, in a puppetish way. But those others..."  
  
Link's eyes were emerald fire, and from where he sat, Tasuki could feel his anger--and understand it clearly.  
  
Honest battle was straighforward, if bloody. Skulking about in corners and whispering poison was foul in a way that a sword-bearing warrior was at odds to agree with.  
  
As if hearing his thoughts, the speaker in the rafters--_Where is he?_ Tasuki wondered. _Not perched up there, certainly--perhaps there is a room we could find?_--gave one last whisper.  
  
"I'll see the others tonight, then, and see that they do not interfere."  
  
Despite Link's sharp ears, there came nothing more, not even a lone footstep or rustle of drapes.  
  
Tasuki ground his teeth in frustration. Link, catching his eye, nodded and without any warning, flung himself from the windowsill, ignoring the curtain completely.  
  
Tasuki jerked in panic. "Li--" he bit off his own cry of astonishment, as he watched the falling elf--who to any of the courtiers would have appeared as a ripple of air, since he was behind the drapes still--landed on his feet, unharmed, without even a steadying step.  
  
"Fuck, man." he called down in a whisper. "Warn me next time, awright? That kinda shit'll cause trouble..."  
  
Ignoring the answering chuckle, he began the climb downwards, the remainder of his apple clenched in his teeth.  
  
  
  
  
  
Chichiri's head snapped up from the tome he was examining. _Who is so angry?_  
  
He concentrated for a moment, his single eye narrowing. _Link...and Tasuki. Not unusual, but they are not angry with eachother, this time, and this goes far beyond simple irritation._  
  
Frowning, he rose and strode from the room, intent upon finding them. They weren't emanating any fear, but, then, Tasuki never did if he was alone in a battle, and the monk had never felt even anxiety from the elf.  
  
As Chichiri reached the solid library door, he stopped.  
  
Not knowing why, he turned left, losing himself in the stacks and dark rows of stone shelves and pillars.  
  
One of the Queens, a thousand years ago, had had a passion for knowledge, and her influence could still be felt in the pecuiliar fervor that the librarians, as one, exhibited.  
  
Unlike any other royal library Chichiri had ever found, this one was spotlessly clean; no dust, no mice, no moths, the tables well oiled and the papers, scrolls and books carefully kept. That long-ago Queen had even put a ward on the room that prevented the air from getting damp--no mold or rot ever touched the parchment.  
  
And the faint scent of water, in this dry room, did not belong.  
  
As he went deeper and deeper into the room, he noticed that the ceiling also became higher, vanishing into shadow. The warm lamps that hung in their tight shields flickered and were hidden behind him, and a faint breeze--again, carrying a subtle odor--stirred in his hair.  
  
He left the last of the light behind, following the soft movement of the air and the familiar, clean smell of fresh water. Funny, how this still made him think of Hikou, and the night that he lost everything he loved to the flood, but now, the pain was a quiet thing. Hikou had forgiven him, Kouran was waiting for him, and that made everything all right.  
  
A little wondering sound woke him from his thoughts, and he stopped dead.  
  
A child--a girl, no more than five years old, small and wide-eyed, sat crosslegged before him. Dim light, which faded when stared at and came from no visible source, hovered over the stone where she sat.  
  
"What are you doing here?" She asked. 


	11. A Change in Pace

BACKGROUND INFORMATION! Per my reviewers' requests, here's some info about each of the characters, before I get back to the story proper.   
  
SPOILER WARNING!  
  
And everyone who is still reading this...thanks. Really. You all mean a lot to me. Even if you don't review, you rock.  
:)  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
LINK:   
Elf, male, between eighteen and twenty-five years old.  
6'00 or so, pale complected, blue eyes, long blond hair, somewhat stocky build--very muscled.  
Link is, in no uncertain terms, a hero. It's what he does, like a job, though he's a good enough person to feel compelled to do it. Not that he has ever had room for many other goals; His mother was killed bringing him to safety when he was only an infant, and he spent the first  
eleven years of his life believing he was one of the ageless woodland folk, the Kokiri, who are forever children. Not until he was forced to leave the Kokiri forests did he come to understand that he would someday grow old, grow up, and die, and at that point his world was in  
such turmoil that all he could do to help was almost not enough. He learned to fight, to protect others and himself, and in doing so lost what he could have had of the rest of his childhood--he is an Adult, and has been since he was eleven years old. Link is a wanderer, trying to find something he cannot describe, even to himself. He is happy enough with the love of his friends(Saria, one of the Kokiri children, remains his best friend; should she ever have been able to grow and age as he does, they would likely have been more.  
Malon, a farmgirl, is his beloved; Zelda, the Princess of Hyrule, is his sister, and he is the type of person who makes loyal friends easily)and though few of them can ever truly understand what he went through, they're good enough to try.  
He's noble; he goes out of his way to help others, and is tireless in pursuit of Light.  
----writer's note: This is true-to-game information, actually, not fan-fiction at all: Prima Game Guides, some quotes from Miyamoto-sama and some hard-to-find sources have convinced me. Zelda is Link's elder sister, and in one version of the story he does actually marry Malon.  
  
  
  
  
TASUKI(or Shun'u, or Genrou, or one of a host of other names)  
Human(God-touched, but human), male, somewhere around twenty-two  
Also around 6'00, tanned skin, amber eyes and fiery red hair; slimly muscled, slender. Tasuki confuses himself sometimes. He was the only son born to his father, and living in a household of sniping, unforgiving girlchildren(not to mention his disgustingly overaffectionate mother)scarred him for life. Women are not his thing. So what does he like to do?   
Get drunk.  
A lot.  
He ran away from home at an early age, and got attatched to a group of bandits through a series of increasingly unlikely circumstances. To his benefit, the gang that picked him up relied on scare tactics rather than rape or murder; with them he learned to fight, to bluff, and to drink  
any other man under the table. For him, life was almost idyllic; he had his friends, he had the excitement of his chosen career, he had money most of the time, food most of the time and booze all of the time. But then the leader of the gang took ill. While Tasuki was out searching for   
the herb that would heal him, the man died, leaving the gang to be ruled by a repulsive lecher with little practice in mercy. Tasuki returned, managed to win leadership of the gang from the scum, only to face another problem; he was the God-Chosen warrior of fire for the Priestess of   
Suzaku; a full-time job requiring patience and loyalty. In the end, he decided that she was worth protecting, and left leadership of the gang to Kouji, his friend and mentor--though he does stop by from time to time to keep his hand in.  
Chichiri is his best friend(and, some argue, his lover, though I've no proof either way), and Tasuki follows him out of love, for companionship, and because he is the only other true surviving member of the Suzaku warriors. Tasuki's foul-mouthed and blunt, but on occasion is surprisingly perceptive, and is more gentle than most men when it comes to the wounded or children. Tasuki is up for about anything, so he's not really missing Kounan.  
  
  
  
CHICHIRI(or Houjun Ri)  
Human(ish), male, around thirty years of age  
Five-ten to six feet tall, pale skin, asthetic build, deceptively fragile-seeming. Only one eye(maroon or sienna, depending on his mood)though he often appears to be a rather cat-faced man, because of an enchanted mask that he wears. His hair is an unbelievable silvery-bluish shade, in true anime style--were he a physical being, I think it would probably be silvery-white blond.  
Chichiri wears more than the physical mask. For many years, he blamed the deaths of his beloved and his best friend on himself; his friend, Hikou, attempted and half-succeeded in seducing the woman away from Chichiri, at which point she decided she was too tainted to marry him as they had planned. Miserable, Chichiri faced Hikou down, as the rain began to fall and the banks of the river on which they fought began to overflow...Hikou fell, and Chichiri panicked. He threw himself to the ground, with his face over the bank, to hold the man above the water, but debris caught in the rushing water stabbed into his eye, ruining it, and in agony he released Hikou, who drowned.  
Chichiri regained consciousness to find that his whole village--including his fiancee--had died in the flood. With no purpose left to him, he was empty, useless, suicidal, and Suzaku could not let that be. Chichiri's powers were woken, he was trained, and he became a wandering monk of sorts, watching and waiting for the Priestess of Suzaku to arrive--she was his purpose for living now, his atonement and his forgiveness.  
The war came and went, and many of the friends he had made during it died. The Priestess came, performed her duty and returned to her own world. Alone but for Tasuki, he was again without purpose, without a true life--but to his surprise and renewed pain, he learned that the anger Hikou felt at the time he died had kept him as a half-alive hungry spirit, who drowned people to hang on to a half-life. Chichiri was forced to assist in the killing of the monster that his almost-brother had become. Again, Hikou's death was Chichiri's 'fault;' again, the monk could do nothing to save one he loved, and instead proved instrumental in killing him.  
In a lesser man, this would have meant insanity, but Chichiri still loved his childhood friend so much that he was able to make Hikou certain that Chichiri had forgiven him for stealing away his lover. And in return, Hikou forgave him, and told him that their beloved was waiting for him--for them both--in Heaven.   
At last he was at peace. For the first time in ten years or more, Chichiri needed no great purpose to goad him onward--he could enjoy breathing without counting his breaths. He travels now, with Tasuki, as advisors to the throne of Kounan, serving still the Phoenix-God Suzaku.  
And now this happens.  
  
LAGUNA LOIRE  
Human, male, around fifty years of age.  
Five foot five, delicate build. Black hair to about his waist, moves silently as a cat.  
Laguna is a simple man. He loves with all his heart, hates nothing, and does the job he has to do without ever looking back, with only one exception. Twice he has lost women he loved; Julia, a singer who was never-quite his lover, and Raine, the woman he married and the mother of his child. Twice he has lost everything he has, his home and his security, once when he was forced to leave Galbadia, and again when he had to chase Ultimecia the Sorceress, forever leaving the little town where he had at last found peace.   
And yet, he is content.  
He misses his wife, though she died twenty years agone; he misses the simplicity of his life as a soldier and a writer; but he does the job that needs to be done.  
What more need be said than that?  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
A CHANGE IN PACE  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
"What are you doing here?"  
  
Chichiri stammered "I felt I needed to come here. And what of you?"  
  
The child studied him with huge eyes, so pale a blue as to seem silver in the dim light. As he noticed it, the faint glow around her faded out, and she stood before him in darkness.  
She was dressed differently from any of the others Chichiri had so far seen; only a slim shift and a thin cloak covered her, but both were of fine fabric unsuited to one with as underfed a frame as hers.   
  
The little girl shrugged. "I belong here. You don't." She ducked her head, and silvery hair fell into her face. "I think." She said uncertainly, her eyes flicking around him.  
  
_She's alone_. Chichiri realized. _There's no one here for her_. Without thinking, he reached down and scooped her into his arms. "All right, no da. In that case, let's find where I should be, yes?"   
  
Unresisting, the child nodded. "Not here." she said. The monk turned back the way he had come, and she stiffened in his arms. "Not there." she said in a little voice. "Not into the light."  
  
Chichiri paused. "All right." he said again. He grinned. "By the way--I'm Houjun, or Chichiri, whichever you'd rather call me, na no da. Can I have your name, no da?"   
  
The girl giggled, a sound as silver as the rest of her. "I'm Aerdre."   
Chichiri smiled again, surprising himself. "Do you know what that means, no da?"  
  
Her pale eyes studying him, she shook her head. "Names mean things?" Chichiri nodded. "Aerdre means 'stream.' Isn't that lovely, na no da?"   
  
Aerdre grinned, showing her teeth. "Wow!" she giggled. "That's neat!" She adjusted herself in his grip, pointing ahead with one little hand. "Turn." she commanded.  
  
And not knowing why, he did.  
  
  
  
  
Laguna sighed happily, absentmindedly rapping his fork against the delicate china plate. Julia's eyes caught and held him, and he smiled back   
at her. "This is lovely." he said, gesturing at the bright fruit pastry that he'd been poking to pieces. Julia giggled, but said nothing.  
  
Across the table from them sat Link and Tasuki, deep in conversation, drawing the appreciative eyes of the court ladies to them.  
  
"How do you fuckin' _stand_ a sword that that fuckin' big, man?" Tasuki drawled. "I mean, if I was gonna use a sword, I'd make damned sure it was somethin' I could lift, y'know?"   
  
Link shook his head. "The sword is the Master Sword, relic of people that came long ago. It's more than just a blade. And even if it _was_ a sword, it would be better than that thing you use." he said with a grin. "What do you do, smack people with it?"  
  
Leaping up to stand on the table, Tasuki ripped his tessen from the sheath where he still wore it, pointed it at the ceiling and shouted "REKKA SHINEN!" for emphasis.   
  
A tower of blood-red flame soared from it, roaring and snapping midair, and the members of the court gasped and screamed in terror. The guards dove for the Queen, whom Laguna held protectively, Link's hand twitched toward his own sword, and several of the ladies fainted in shock. 

  
His hair blowing back from his face, his fanged grin glittering in the crimson light, his head thrown back to laugh, Tasuki resembled a demon from the court's worst wine-induced nightmare. And then, as abruptly as it had come, the fire winked out of existence, leaving only a rustle in the drapes and the faint scent of some unnamable blossom. Tasuki stepped easily off of the high table and fell back into his seat.  
  
"See?" he said.  
  
Utter silence reigned in the dining hall. With an exaggerated yawn, Link rose from the table and bowed to Queen Julia. "My deepest pardon begged, milady." he said clearly. "All of this excitement has quite exhausted me, and I think I shall retire." he bowed as the awestruck Queen waved him on.   
  
Tasuki, standing again though none had seen him rise, nodded. "Me too. 'M tired." he said.   
  
Without waiting for the Queen to nod, he swaggered away from the table, grabbing an apple at the last moment and crunching into it noisily. " 'Night." he called behind him.  
  
Laughing silently, his shoulders barely shaking to betray him, Link followed.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
AUTHOR'S NOTE:  
More coming soon, I prooooooomise. Just been busy, with my boyfriend flying out from England to visit me.   
Soon.  
Very soon.  
Really. 


	12. Different Kinds of Flame

DISCLAIMER: I don't own this. If I had the great honor of even KNOWING Laguna, Link, Chichiri or Tasuki, I'd be off living the good life, supported by the rabid fangirls who paid me daily for pictures off the webcam. ;)

Sorry it's been so long from the last chapter to this one, folks. A thousand things got in the way. In return, this is a LONG chapter, something like four thousand words, which I hope you enjoy!

;)

Ja!

DIFFERENT SORTS OF FLAME

As soon as they were out of sight of the court, Link turned and faced the warrior with an ironic smile. "That was--effective. They now think you little more than a swaggering fool." He said softly, his lips barely moving.

Tasuki let out a low, throaty chuckle, and brushed the hair back from his face. "Hey, I know what ta do ta distract 'em." He said. "Now--we're bein' watched, right?" He caught the elf's nod in from the corner of his eye. "Awright. Let's...um." He yawned suddenly. "M' tired." He said, loud enough to be heard down the hall. "M' gonna go ta bed now, so I--" He drew back with a gasp, his hand flying to his tessen. "Who the fuck'r you?" He snarled, pointing the intimidating weapon at a shadow in the corner of the hall. 

Link's eyes widened in startlement as a tall, slim man unfolded from the darkness. "Well met, warriors." Said a familiar voice. "Good e'en to ye both." The voice held a mocking edge, and Link's fingers unconsciously stroked the hilt of his sword. "Who are you?" He asked, repeating the seishi's question.

The man walked into the light, and both men recognized the face of the herald-guard who had led them to the Queen days before. "I am Alaric, cousin to Her Majesty, and a friend. We need to share speech."

The weight of the child in Chichiri's arms reminded him that he'd been walking for several hours. She still corrected his movement from time to time, leading him deeper and deeper into the Library--which, he had realized some time earlier, was a room easily as big as the castle above it. The books and papers still rose to dizzying heights in all directions from him, and occasionally he felt a twinge of longing--to be able to learn as much as was held here! So much knowledge! He sighed, and Aerdre stirred and looked up from his arms.

"What, Master Chichiri? Are you tired? We could sleep." He smiled down at her. "I could use a rest, no da. You still haven't told me where we're going, and my friends..." He shook his head, confused for a moment, and dizzy. "I have friends in the castle above, and by now will be worried, no da."

A shadow passed briefly over her pale face. "No they won't." she said quietly. "They've got a lot going on, themselves."

Chichiri stopped short. "Explain." He said gently.

All at once, the strangeness of the whole thing caught up to him. "Why am I carrying you?" he asked, still not raising his voice. "What are you doing here, and why have we not yet reached the end of the Library?"

Aerdre cringed.

"Are you angry?" she asked in a small voice.

"No, child. Just curious."

She took a deep breath. "I was watching you from the inside." She said. "When you sat there reading, I read you too. And I liked you. And I didn't want you to get hurt!" Her last word dissolved into a wail, and she sobbed into Chichiri's shirtfront. "I...heard...the...men." She managed. "Those Others that don't like anyone."

Chichiri's blood ran cold as the little girl gulped and shuddered. "Why would I be hurt, Aerdre?" he asked, brushing the hair from her face with one long-fingered hand. "Is there someone that wants to hurt me, na no da?"

Choking back tears, she nodded.

"And...does that person want to hurt my friends?"

She nodded faster, her hair flying. Chichiri sighed.

"All right, no da. Did you see the bad men?"

"N-no."

"But you heard them?"

"Yes."

"Where?"

She stiffened and said nothing.

"Aerdre?"

Chichiri turned and began to walk back the way they had come, crooning softly. "Nothing you could say would make me angry, no da. I know you just want to keep me safe. But I want to keep my friends safe, too, and I can't do that unless you tell me everything, na no da."

Laguna watched the warriors leave with mixed feelings. On one hand, he wanted to laugh, but he was sitting next to Julia and that would doubtless embarrass her. On the other hand, Tasuki was acting irresponsibly, as he seemed to do often. Silently, Laguna decided that he'd speak to the seishi later, and see if maybe he could get him to clean up his act a bit.

"Laguna?"

"Oh—what? I'm sorry, Julia, I was off in my own little world again."

She smiled at him and patted his hand. "I said, it's been suggested to me that, in honor of your arrival, I should have a dance. What do you think?"

Laguna blushed. "I can't dance." He murmured. She laughed, and the sound echoed from the high ceiling like a startled bird. "Oh, love, there is plenty else to do but that! Don't worry! I'm rather more worried about whether or not your friends will behave themselves." There was an edge to her sweet voice, and to his surprise Laguna found himself defending them. "Of course! This is all new to them, but they're not ignorant of courtly matters—and if Tasuki acts up, what harm would come of it? He has a noble heart."

Julia sighed. "Does he? I must confess that I've seen little evidence of that." She signaled for another glass of wine.

Tasuki settled into the brocade-cushioned chair with a heavy thump, and put both bootheels up onto the table. "Talk, then, damn it!" He snarled. "I don't like bein' surprised in the fuckin' hallway, all right? Speak yer piece and let me get ta bed."

Link smiled wryly. "I confess that my companion has the right of it. If we must have speech, why not in the dining hall where all can see and none can point fingers to shout conspiracy? This looks bad."

Alaric sighed, shaking his head, and took a chair himself. "I mislike worrying Her Majesty unnecessarily, and if this is something that can be handled by us, why should I do so?"

Tasuki laughed once, a short, derisive noise. "Enough with tha fuckin' language, pal. You've got two minutes."

The man nodded and bowed his head for a moment. "There is a plot to kill you all." At Tasuki's look, he held up a forestalling hand. "Doubtless this does not surprise you, but there is more to it than that. There is fear that you have come to take our Queen back to the land she was born in--Sir Laguna has some kindred history with her, and those loyal to her do not want to see her leave. And to those disloyal, you are support that they think she ill needs. You are not well loved in the Court, and any more time you spend here will not make you more so." He paused for a moment, choosing his words with care. "I don't much believe in gods." he said to Tasuki. "You and the monk are just priests, as far as I'm concerned. But--something is going on. Why have you come here? If you've come to take her back, why now instead of years agone, when she still was heart-whole in regards to this place?"

Tasuki shook his head. "Look, we're not gonna--"

"FIRE!"

The scream cut through the diplomatic words and startled the three of them into action. There was the sound of a panicked mob, the sound of many voices and feet.

The warriors raced from the room into the hallway, which was filled with greasy black smoke and running people. Tasuki growled. "How does a fire get so big, so quick, in a castle?" He muttered under his breath, pulling a scarf from his sleeve. Link had raced on ahead and vanished in the smoke, which was already so thick that it blotted out the light from the torches on the walls. The bandit looked sideways at Alaric, who nodded. "Let's get the people out. We can talk later." Tasuki grinned. "Damn straight. Ya gonna get Julia?" The man's eyes widened, and he tore off after Link.

"Fuckin' amateur." Tasuki said. Moving quickly, he grabbed a pitcher of water from its place on a hall table and soaked the kerchief, brought it to his face and knotted it tightly around his head.

Beneath it, he wore a grin his face hadn't used since Miaka was still in his world.

Laguna held Julia tightly, trying to steer her through the flaming wreckage toward the door at the other end of the broad feast hall. He'd been sharing the wine brought to Her Majesty, when all of a sudden someone had screamed something, and the high roof came down in an explosion of fire. The debris had shattered the square of tables and sent panicked courtiers fleeing in every direction--or, at least, the ones not trapped beneath fallen crossbeams the size of several horses.

Julia had been cracked across the head, and she was unconscious as her petticoats fused. Laguna tore them off of her, leaving her only in her shift, and hefted her into his arms.

As he moved, Laguna could see that not all of the huge roof had fallen in(_Of course it hasn't, we'd all be dead,_ he thought rapidly), only a pair of crossbeams and the tiles and thatch that covered about a twenty-five foot stretch of the lengthy hall.

The stretch that had been above Julia and the highest ranking nobles. Laguna's political mind filed this all away as he made for the door, once leaping a three-foot high beam that crossed the width of the hall. For a moment he regretted giving up the usage of Guardian Forces, so many years ago--a water elemental would have been able to quiet the blaze before it could reach the rest of the hall, and then the rest of the castle.

Above him, the unbroken beams began to creak and complain. Putting on a final burst of speed that he knew he would pay for later, Laguna dashed through the open double doors.

he almost broadsided Julia's advisor, who came barreling down the smokefilled hall with a face full of rage. Seeing Laguna, he drew up short, gasping for air and getting a lungful of poisonous smoke instead. "She all right?" He asked shortly. Laguna nodded, not wanting to waste his breath. "Get her out of here, then." Alaric said, running back the way he'd come. Lips set in a grim line, Laguna shifted her in his arms and followed him.

Tasuki turned away from the main hallway as he came to it, his sharp ears picking up a noise that the frightened rabbits of the court didn't hear, or were too worried about their own skins to pay attention to. He strode to a closed door--something he remembered as being an ambassadorial suite, if his nighttime inspections of this floor were still straight in his mind. He tried the latch--it was locked. Behind him was a muffled crumping noise, and he threw himself to the floor as a wave of burning air and steam and smoke gusted through the hallway. The skin on the backs of his hands and his neck sizzled, and his hair blew into his face.

The warrior knew fire intimately, being so tied to it as he was, and that sound brought to his mind the vision of a roof falling from a height to shatter on the ground, throwing flaming wreckage in all directions, setting off the rest of the castle. With sudden clarity, he knew that the fire had been laid in the main hall, and that that hall had been destroyed--and that the rest of the castle would soon follow suit. Spurred on by that mental image, he leapt to his feet and knocked the door open with one snapping kick. The room was a finely furnished one, and some part of his mind was weighing the wall hangings and trinkets as a bandit would. None of the lamps in the room were lit, and it took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. "Hello?" He called. "Anyone in here?" He knew someone was, but the room appeared deserted. He walked quickly through it to the bedroom beyond it, taking in the high canopied bed, made of some dark wood(_Tthat's gonna burn fuckin' HOT!, _ he thought)and the messy blankets on top of it.

__

Messy blankets. Ambassadorial room. But the Ambassadors were all at dinner, and they haven't had much time to leave...Fuck.

His sharp eyes had spotted a tiny hand, knuckles white, sticking out from under the bed. It was wrapped around the foot of the bed, holding on for dear life. He darted over to it and knelt, looking underneath the bed, his amber eyes alighting on a pair of frightened brown ones.

"Hello there." he said softly. "I can take you to safety. You want to come to me?" There was a whisper, and a child scooted forward, her nightgown covered in gray dust from the floor, and sat on her knees beside the bed. She was maybe seven years old, and her face was pale and serious. "I heard screaming." she said in a small voice. "It's not raiders, is it?"

"No, honey." Tasuki said, trying to appear like someone who the girl would trust. "Not raiders. It's just a little fire, so we're going to go down to the field where the horses are, all right?" Behind him, in the direction of the sitting room he'd come through, came the noise of burning. The child's lip quivered and a single tear rolled from her right eye, but she stood and nodded. "Right. No. Hang on." She stuck her head back under the bed and said something in a low voice. "Pull me out." she said loudly, muffled by the eiderdown and ebon wood between her and Tasuki. He grasped her by the waist and dragged her back, staring when he saw the even smaller girl in her arms. This one was no older than four, and she was weeping silently.

"Right, then!" Tasuki said. His eyes scanned the room and found the basin of washwater, and he grinned under the kerchief. "Fuck, yeah!" He ripped a pair of cotton sheets from the bed and poured the water over them. "Awright, girls. Wrap up." He bundled them each in a soaked sheet, leaving their legs sticking out below and room to the sides for their arms to hold him, and hefted them, one to each hip. "Ready?"

"Yes!" Came a chorus of sweet voices. "Let's go!"

Silently he praised Suzaku for giving him the gift of speed. He carried the girls into the sitting room in two long strides, his eyes widening in surprise at the fire already tearing through it. 

__

Fuck. Hall's going to be too far gone, unless I run. Which way is out?

Mentally he saw the closest door, which would take them into a little courtyard, and from there to the grassy field where the horses grazed. _Right. _ he said to himself. He took one deep breath of the room's air, which would be cooler than the air in the long hallway, and leapt through the door.

Chichiri jerked.

__

Something is wrong.

He looked at Aerdre, who had begun suddenly to shake. "I've killed you." she said in a horrified whisper. "The castle is afire." Chichiri turned and bolted back the way he'd come, holding Aerdre tightly. "It's too late!" She yelled. "Your only hope is to run further into the catacombs, try to wait it out." Chichiri laughed then, thinking _Fool! Why, in times of trouble, are you suddenly so likely to forget all sense? _ Carefully, he set the little girl down, and pulled his kesa from its place on his back. He threw it on the ground and lifted Aerdre, dropping her into it. He'd thought of somewhere safe to send her--the very edge of the fallow field where the courtiers' horses grazed. He waited a moment, until he was sure she'd landed there, before thinking of another destination.

__

Tasuki. he thought, pulling himself into the hat.

Link's fingers danced over the ocarina. His narrow eyes saw the horses, clustered at the far edge of their safe field, and he played the begging-song that would call them to him. He held the gate open and sent his thoughts to them in as persuasive and compelling a fashion as he could manage. 

__

Come, come bear those who care for you. Without people, your hooves will ache, no one will brush the burrs from your manes or feed you. Come, come carry them to safety. As one, the herd of horses lunged, and raced toward him. He stepped aside, and they flew through the open gate and toward the burning castle. One of them--the lead horse, Link noticed--waited for him: He grasped its mane and swung himself up onto its bare back.

"Go!" he cried, and it moved beneath him.

Tasuki's lungs and eyes burned, and he could hardly see through the tears. The children held him tightly, one on each hip, their little hands fisted in his clothing. They coughed, too, and clutched him tighter.

"Tasuki, no da!"

He spun to track the voice. "Chichiri? Fuck, man, it's taken you long enough!" Chichiri was close to him now, and the monk reached out and took one of the girls. She struggled for a moment, blinded as she was by the damp sheet. "Shh, it's all right, no da." Chichiri said in her ear. He lifted her and turned to carry her piggyback, and Tasuki did the same with the other one. Tasuki shrugged in the direction of the door, and they raced on side by side, just like in the old days.

Laguna cursed in frustration. Twice now his way had been blocked by rubble too high to surmount, almost as though something was watching his attempt to save the queen with unsympathetic eyes. The air burned, and the room spun.

__

I'm suffocating. The thought seemed alien to him--compared with all the ways he'd had to almost die in the past, fire was ridiculous. Finally a door appeared before him, and he kicked it open. Cool night air rushed in to meet the burning air of the doomed castle, and Laguna leapt forward into the night before the backdraft of fire could follow him. Julia coughed and protested weakly, and Laguna almost dropped her—

__

She's all right, she's all right, she's all right! his mind sang at her. But his relief was shortlived--the courtyard that he ran into was hemmed in by fire. "Will I never be free of it?" He cried.

"Laguna!"

His head snapped up at the yell.

"Laguna, I'm here!"

"Link! I'm trapped! Link!" Laguna bellowed, throwing all his strength into the cry.

"Stand back!" Link called. Laguna heard hoofbeats, and then watched as a huge horse vaulted the burning wall as though it was a foot tall. The elf was off the horse and lifting Julia from Laguna's unresisting arms before the man could blink. "I'll be right back for you." He said, somehow mounting with the semiconscious woman in his arms. The horse leapt the wall again, and Laguna heard them thundering away, and then the return hoofbeats.

"You're _fast_ on that horse!" he said as Link appeared again. Without replying, the elf reached down and pulled him up behind. Laguna held tight and closed his eyes as he felt the muscles of the horse bunching in anticipation--then they were over the wall and to safety. They were at the edge of the horsefield; Laguna saw a knot of people at the other end, and Link rushed toward them. "I've got to go back." the elf said, depositing Laguna halfway there. "Help them."

In the direction of the castle, Laguna could hear men and women yelling for buckets. Grimly, he turned toward the people cowering at the edge of the field and went to help.

Tasuki and Chichiri left the girls with the people gathered in the field, and went back to join the bucket brigade. From there it became a nightmare: bending and lifting, passing on the huge and heavy buckets and watching as the water turned to steam before it could do any good. The entire westward side of the castle had been destroyed--the eastward side was mostly untouched, but the day-to-day living had taken place in the west. Face blackened by soot, hands torn and bleeding from the rough buckets, Tasuki turned to Chichiri in disgust. "This isn't fuckin' WORKIN', all right? We gotta do something else, damn it!" There was a hand on his shoulder, suddenly, and Tasuki spun to see a woman there in openmouthed wonder. "What is he doing?" she asked. Tasuki followed her eyes and saw Link, standing fifty feet off with his ocarina to his lips. His head was flung back, and he gazed into the sky.

He played a skirling few notes, simple but increasing in speed, and the sky changed. Clouds formed in an eyeblink, lightning danced above them. He played on, his music daring the wind to blow, and then a miracle happened.

"Fuckin' hell." Tasuki whispered, watching the first few fat raindrops falling from the sky. There was a pause as Link fell silent, and then the sky cracked open. Rain poured, so dense that it blocked out anything more than a few feet away. The castle vanished into the rain, and there was a great sizzling as the fire began to die. Link glared in the direction of the castle as another sound came, a roaring whoomph, and the rain falling glowed golden. The castle burned on. Link played the notes again, the raindrops grew to the size of a man's closed fist, and the glow dimmed. Steam rose and clouded the air, and it was as if the world had been holding its breath, and finally remembered to exhale. The sizzling itself quieted, and all that could be heard was the thundering rain and the cries of relief from the soot-covered people.

Tasuki watched Link in amazement. His blond hair was plastered to his face, and his green eyes blazed with their own fire.

"It was magic. The Song of Storms should have quieted it the first time." He coughed, doubling up, and Chichiri bit off a quiet exclamation. "You're going to be sick, no da." He said quietly. "Let's get the people into the eastward side, and see that the injured ones are dealt with, and then we can talk, na no da."

They didn't end up talking that night, though. By the time Tasuki fell into the cot laid out for him, in the new little room that the warriors would all share for now, the sun was up by more than an hour: as soon as his head touched the pillow, he slept.


	13. Darkness By Any Name

ARE YOU HAPPY TO SEE ME?

*grins*

Hello!

Chichiri dreamed.

In his dreams, he was barefoot and walking through the cool catacombs of the Library. Just barely in view ahead of him was a glow, faint and blue, that wavered and bounced as he followed it. There was the sound of dripping water, and that old familiar scent. 

_Hojun, it is good that you are safe, for there is need of you._

The voice was soft, and he did not hear it with his ears--but it was not like normal telepathy either. The words seemed to bloom inside of him, more concepts than speech. 

_There is need of all of you._

The light bobbing ahead of him paused, and the catacombs seemed to darken as he concentrated on it. "What need?" he asked. The light flickered. 

_Without you, people will die._

_If you are not careful, people will die._

_Even if you do everything that you need to do--people will die._

With the almost-words came a pain in his chest, a deep stabbing ache. He swallowed and continued after the light. "There is no way to keep death from this place? These people are as good as any others I have met."

_Let those who are to die make their peace, Priest. Help them to it. _

Chichiri gasped, and in his dream the sound echoed and shot back at him like the voices of a hundred mothers. "Is that why I am in this place?"

_Are you not that sort of Priest?_

There was an abrupt noise, and Chichiri was slammed into wakefulness. Link was standing by his bedside with his sword drawn, and Tasuki had been cornered by half a dozen guards. Laguna's bed was empty. "What's going on, na no da?" the monk asked. Tasuki shouted "They're here ta take us away! They say we started the fuckin' fire!" He gripped his tessen so tightly that it bit into his hands. "They say that I wanna kill their fuckin' Queen! As if I cared enough ta wanna kill 'er! She's an annoying bitch, sure, but she's no danger ta me!" Chichiri rose from the bed, his face tight and cold beneath its mask. Link let him step through, still glaring at the guardsmen who had come for them. Chichiri walked as close to a guard as he could get before the man started backing away, and very quietly asked "Why do you think that it was us?"

The man gestured at Tasuki. "His magic bundle. Last night. He showed us that it caused fire, and not half an hour from the time he left the hall, the castle burned." the man looked away from the monk, feeling the glare that he could not see. Tasuki had started to cough; choking horrible sounds that made Chichiri's chest ache in sympathy...or perhaps that was the after affects of the dream. "You come to take us in our sleep? We are weary and burned and filthy from the fire. It is not our place to save your people, but we did. It was not our place to do aught but save ourselves, and there was not a one of us who didn't go back into the flames to help again, and again, and again. You do not even honor us enough to let us bathe before you take us before your Queen?"

The guards stiffened. "You'd do well to think of honor, demon." one of them spat. "Our Queen is dying."

Laguna sat by Julia's bedside, his hands both closed around one of hers. He had taken a quick bath in the room beside this one, and borrowed clothing from one of the maids' husbands, but to look at him was to instantly see that he had been through hell. But he did not look as bad as the Queen.

Her head was wrapped in bandages, but there was no bandage that could heal the damage wrought to her. She had not woken since last night, and the doctors who had seen her spoke briefly, their expressions broken and already mourning--there was nothing that could be done. Their Queen would die. Her skull had been broken, and blood loss and shards of bone had conspired to remove anything useful from her physical mind--she would perhaps live out the day, but no more than that. Her body was empty, they said, or near enough, and it would be best to leave her to the gods. Even hope was useless.

Laguna did not hear them. He was concentrating on the feel of Julia's pulse, caged inside of his hands. He had the unrealistic idea that if he held that pulse, she would wake--if he did not let go of her hand, she would be healed and whole by nightfall. But he knew, of course, that it was not the truth. He had held the hands of the dying more than once, and their hands had always felt as hers did now--fast emptying of anything that made them what they were. Fast emptying of life.

He mourned her already, this woman that he might have loved. He thought much about Raine, about her death--it had broken him, and this pain was small beside that. But--_Dammit, I deserve more. he thought. __THEY deserve more. They've done nothing to deserve this stupidity. He lost his train of thought quickly, looking at her closed eyes and barely-parted lips. __Was it because I loved her that she is dying? Is she suffering for affection given more than twenty years ago? The idea was a pervasive one. __It is not RIGHT that she should die. She lives for her people, and they need her. Despite his attention, Laguna's eyelids lowered. He was so tired--he had not slept, and adrenalin comes at a high cost. He leaned back in his chair, careful not to disturb Julia but still holding her hand, and slept._

Tasuki's eyes widened. "What?" the tessen dipped toward the floor for an instant, but he raised it again as the guards came forward. "What?" He repeated. Link's face was expressionless, but the bandit could tell that he was thinking fast. The guard continued "She suffered a blow to the head. She sleeps, and will not wake. And you--all three of you--will go now with us to sit in waiting for judgement."

Chichiri spoke again, more quietly. "And who will judge us?"

"An adopted cousin of the Queen. Lord Nakago."

Tasuki dropped his tessen. "Lord NAKAGO?" The guard blinked, confused. "No. Lord Nakago, I said." Link's face was drawn and tight. "Ganondorf Dragmire is Lord here?" he asked the guard. The man looked at them as though they were insane. "No!" he said to Link, "I said Lord Dragmire!" Tasuki cursed. "Nakago, like I said!" he shouted, getting angry. His face was red at the perceived mockery, and Chichiri raised one finger. "Quiet, all of you." he said. "Think of flowers, rivers, something peaceful." Both of the warriors were well familiar with meditation, and they stood still, eyes half-closed, breathing deeply. To the guard, Chichiri said "Say his name again." The guard snarled. "I said! You will be judged! By Lord Keralor!" This time, all three of the foreigners heard the word clearly. Confused, they looked at eachother. "Why did we hear--what--" Link began, not understanding. Chichiri said "We will go with you, no da. But you must first give us time for prayer. Station guards outside the door if you wish, and under the windows, but I must commune with my god, na no da." Something on his face convinced the guards, and they filed out, glaring behind them. Chichiri waited until the door had closed before turning to his companions. "Tasuki and I heard the name Nakago. Link, what did you hear the man say?"

"He said, 'Ganondorf Dragmire.' " said Link. Chichiri shook his head. "No, he did not, no da. But that is what you heard. In our world, Nakago was--not a good man." Tasuki snorted. "Fuckin' understatement of the fuckin' year, Chiri." he muttered. Link, who was still pale and wary, said "Ganondorf was the most evil creature ever born." he said quietly. "Many died at his hands." His blue eyes were dark with some remembered horror. "Many that I loved."

Tasuki's face wore the same expression as that of the elf. "Yeah." he said. "But why the hell did we hear those names?"

Chichiri stood for a moment, thinking fast. "I can only assume that it is...some sort of hint, from whatever brought us here. Nakago was the worst of our enemies. Link, I can only assume that this man Dragmire was the same for you?"

"He was. The worst of all possible enemies."

"Then we need to be careful around lord Keralor. I think that to this world, he must be what Nakago was to us--what Ganondorf was to you."

Link exclaimed softly and he turned back to his bedside, to the bag that hung there. He dipped his hand in and pulled out something that glowed brightly. "We need to see Julia." he said. "Chichiri, you remember what I said about these." he held out a phial, glowing pinkly, and the monk's jaw dropped. "Yes, na no da!" Tasuki looked from one of them to the other, then shrugged. "Monk stuff?" he asked. Link grinned and stuffed the phial into the warrior's hand. "You have to do it." he said. "If you do it, they won't think that you caused any of this. You just pull--"

The door swung open, and the three of them looked up. A man stood there, the guards clustered behind him and a smile on his face. "Conspiring to kill the rest of my family?" he asked. Chichiri whispered, to low to carry even to the door, "This man is our enemy." Tasuki strengthened his hold on his tessen, Link raised his sword again. "Who are you?" Tasuki asked, for the benefit of the guards. "I am Lord Keralor." the man said. He stepped through the door, and the sunlight caught on his pale brown hair and his green eyes. He was what Miaka used to call nothing-men--nothing particular about him stood out, he was neither tall nor short, heavyset nor skinny. He was moderate in build and in dress. But something in his eyes stung like ant venom, and Tasuki forced himself to stare back without baring his teeth.

Keralor looked them over, still faintly smiling. "You have sent my darling cousin, my ruler, to her deathbed." he said. Chichiri said "No. It was another. Let us prove it to you, na no da." Keralor shook his head. "Your words seduced my cousin. They will not seduce me. You will come now with the guards, or you will die. You will go without fighting, down to the gaol, or you will die. And in three days, as is in accordance to the law, I will stand in judgement over you for your crimes."

He smiled, round teeth gleaming whitely against the shadow that he stood against.

"And then you will die."

A/N: Don't worry, it won't be no stinkin' ten months till the next chapter! I'm writing it TONIGHT. I just don't want to post two chapters at once, you know? Might leave a couple people behind, because it's been so long since I posted anything...anyway! Reviews? Flames? Offers of marriage/declarations of intent to crucify?

Ja!


	14. Pasture

DISCLAIMER:

I do not own them. I'm not making money off of this. Enjoy.

_"Perhaps passing through the gates of death is like passing quietly through the gate in a pasture fence. On the other side, you keep walking, without the need to look back. No shock, no drama, just the lifting of a plank or two in a simple wooden gate in a clearing.  Neither pain, nor floods of light, nor great voices, but just the silent crossing of a meadow."_  --Mark Helprin, "A Soldier of the Great War"

**PASTURE**

The three of them were still for a long moment, wolves staring down a bear. Tasuki's empty hand flexed, and his Keralor's eyes flicked to the tessen that lay on the floor at Tasuki's feet.  "No." said Keralor.  "I would not suggest that." the warrior's hands dropped to his sides, and he sagged against Link.  "Fuck." he said.  Link's eyes went wide at the bandit's sudden show of weakness, but some knowledge glimmered in them for an instant. 

Chichiri said "We will go with you. We will not cause any sort of fight."  

There was no hope in the monk that Keralor would be merciful--no more than he would have expected mercy from Nakago. The auras of the two felt similar, but this man lacked Nakago's spark.  His greed, and his evil, felt like the air in a winter storm, cold and cutting on all sides.  But there might yet be a chance for escape.

            "Fuck." Tasuki said again, his hands curling into fists as he stood strong again on his own feet.  Neither the guards nor the Lord noticed the glimmer of glass inside the warrior's grip, as they had not noticed the brief touch between his palm and Link's.  "Where is the Queen?" Chichiri asked.  "We would see her, tender our sympathies, under as much guard as you think necessary, before we go to trial." Keralor chuckled. "No." he said again. He gestured at the fallen tessen, and two of the guards stepped forward to grasp it--and it was then that Tasuki made his move.  By taking those few steps, the guards had opened a gap in the line, and cleared a space to the door. It was slim, but Tasuki's gift was speed--the air in the room swirled around their faces, and the guards looked up to see his rapidly retreating backside.

Keralor turned, too late, his face a mask of disbelief.  "Gods! Catch him!" Tasuki tore down the hall, turning corners at random, flying up a stairway and knocking straight into a maid.  "Quick!" he shouted, holding her shoulders and dancing with the need for swiftness.  "Where is the Queen? I can save her! Where the fuck is she?"  Startled, the young woman pointed down the corridor.  "Take the fifth door on the left down to the courtyard, and then cross through the gardens.  She's on the third floor, in the Littler Room." she said.  "Beside the painting of Her Late Majesty." Tasuki shouted a thanks over his shoulder, and sped off.

Laguna still held on to Julia as though it could save her.  Her pulse was weakening, and the doctor at her side had a face that was thunder-dark.  "There is nothing more that I can do even to comfort her." he said.  "I will send for her cousins.  It is only meet that they be here now."

_No, no, no, Julia..._  Laguna did not bother to hold back the tears, and they fell onto his closed hands, slid onto her wrist, where they barely trembled with the beating of her heart.  Her eyes flickered a little, and he knew that she was dreaming.  _Please, gods, let her dream be a sweet one._

Julia was walking through a field of flowers. The breeze on her face smelled of honeysuckle, and she smiled broadly.  Her bare arms and shoulders warmed in the bright sunlight, and distantly, she heard music.  She looked down--she was barefoot, and wearing cut-off jean shorts and a little red tank top that hugged her flat belly and slim waist. How funny. She hadn't been so slender since before Rinoa was born; she had Mama-hips now. Yes. She hadn't dressed like this since--since before--her brow wrinkled a little. She couldn't remember what the 'before' had been, or what came after it.  _Oh, well._

She bent and ran her fingers through the grass. It was perfect and cool and soft, and the fine fuzz on the blades felt as perfect as any velvet.

_Velvet?__ Velvet dress. What velvet?_

The mental image was gone, and she continued, feeling the dew between her toes.  She walked in a straight line, as sure as if she was pulled on a cord, though she didn't have anywhere in mind to go. Far, very far overhead, a bird circled and twinkled red against the sky, and she heard its call, mournful and high.  Something in its voice was familiar, but...

...gone.

She looked to the horizon. On the very edge of the world, it seemed, there was a mountain range. From this distance it was only a pastel blue suggestion, but she knew that that was where she was bound. She tried to discern any feature of the peaks, focusing tightly, her eyes watering, and stopped up short as a sharp, burning pain slammed through her left foot. She looked down again; she'd slammed right into a short, rectangular tablet, with carved writing etched into it, a--

_A grave marker?_

It was simple grey stone, smooth and cooler than the dew beneath her feet, and almost hidden by the calf-high grass and wildflowers.  The ones that grew around it, for six feet or more, all bore white flowers that smelled of some memory Julia could not place. Gently, she parted the long stalks to read what it said.

****

**_RAINE _****_LOIRE_******

Something about the name was familiar, too. So much danced on the very edges of her memory--she tongued the thought like a loose tooth.  One of the flowers came loose in her hand as she let the plants slap back together, and she twiddled it for a moment, then tucked the stem behind one ear.  It bobbed as she walked, and the perfume from the soft creamy petals made her smile.  She breathed deep, and let her gaze drift once again to the mountains, and walked on.

"Did you ever know?"

The voice made her look around.  She knew that voice. 

"Did you ever know, when I watched you, what I thought?"

The words were echoes of something else.  "Did you ever know," she sang,  "That I had mine on you?"  The voice said nothing more, and she swayed a little as she walked.  She could not remember where she knew the song from, but it made her feel a little sad. She hummed it, not trying for the other words.

She looked back to the mountain range, and saw with pleased surprise that they were closer than before. She could see the fur of forests stretched out over them, and a silvery snake of river coming from a lake near the top of one of the lower peaks.

"I would like to swim there." she said.  "I haven't been swimming in a mountain stream since before Rinoa..."  The sound of her own voice was odd to her.  Before who?  It was gone, gone, and she continued on.

Chichiri almost laughed as Tasuki disappeared from the room.  If not for the adrenalin even now pumping through his system, Chichiri might have seen the whole thing as some grand comedy.  As the guards turned to follow, the monk reached out with one ankle, nonchalantly tripping the lead guardsman.  "Oh! Sorry, no da!" he said.  "Let me help you up!"

Keralor drew a long knife and shoved it at Chichiri's face.  "Back off, foreign child of a foreign whore.  Do not touch my men."  Chichiri shrugged.  "As you will it, my lord." he said mildly.  Link reached forward and grabbed the monk by his shoulder.  "Shall you do the honor, or shall I?" he whispered quickly. Chichiri knew what he meant.  Whatever brought them here would not let them die now, not unless there was no way around it--but he didn't want to wait around for the chance.  The elf was already ready with a little brown orb, about the size of a walnut, and Chichiri closed his eyes as Link's hand shot out and dashed it to the floor.  It exploded with a blinding white light that burned through the monk's tightly-clenched eyelids, and he fumbled for Link's shoulder. Keralor cursed, and the light faded, and the two warriors opened their eyes, already moving for the door, Link already gripping his bag.  The guards hadn't even managed to get up yet, and the light had been so close to their faces that they lay stunned, unable to move from the shock. Keralor's palms were tight on his face, and he whimpered.

"Should we tie them up, do you think?" Link called as they shut the door behind them.  Chichiri shook his head.  "No. Nothing to tie them with, and the guards will come out of it too quickly. We need to find a place to hide, na no da."  Link sheathed his sword as they ran, Chichiri sending out his mind to find Tasuki.  "The courtyard!" he cried, and together they dashed out into the bright morning.  "What did you give Tasuki?"

            "Something for Julia." Link said, using the rest of his breath to run.  

The doctor opened the door again, but Laguna did not hear or see him.  Julia's cousins and closest friends filed in, their faces drawn, many of them in the same smokestained clothing from the night before.  Several of them were crying; Laguna did not even know that they were there.  Every fraction of his concentration was bent on the flickering butterfly of Julia's pulse, stuttering and failing under his hands.  It was weaker every second, and no amount of concentration could lend it strength.  Her lips curved in a soft smile, and she let out a shadow of a laugh, one rise and fall of her sleeping voice. It cut Laguna to the heart, and he knew that he had a breath, an eyeblink, before he lost her again, forever.

Chichiri scanned the hall for any sign of Tasuki, any overturned furniture or disarray, but saw nothing.  The man was even less clumsy when he was fast...he saw a tapestry rippling a bit in a breeze that should not have been there, and slowed down.  A tuft of silver-blue hair showed from behind it, and he caught his breath.  "Aerdre!"  The little head slid behind the wall hanging, but one tiny hand stuck out and gestured them nearer.  

The sun was setting now, and the air was getting cooler, but Julia relished the feel of the breeze on her legs and arms and face.  The sunset wasn't spectacular, just a gentle change in the color of the sky; all the same, she paused and watched until it was dark and the stars came out.

Behind her, she heard the thudding of hooves. She turned, unafraid--she had forgotten how to fear, perhaps--and saw a horse crest the hill behind her.  Muscles rippling under a deep-chestnut coat, silver mane and tail flying out behind her like clouds bright-lit by the last of the sun, the mare raced down the hill and slid to a stop before Julia, her blue eyes watching the woman as if she knew her from long and happy contact.

            "Hello." Julia said, raising one hand to caress the mare's throat.  "Are you here for me?"  The horse ducked her head once, never breaking eye contact, and kneeled. Julia straightened her shirt and ran one hand through her hair.  "Thank you." she said.  "I never did learn to ride bareback, much less mount that way, not even after--after. After all."  she shrugged, and climbed onto the horse's back.  "You want to go somewhere?" she asked. The horse rose to her feet again, and from the added height Julia could see the curve of the earth, the way that the far-off, star-limned hills bent as if seen through a droplet of water.  "Pretty." she said to no one at all. Together, the two of them went on.

Chichiri signalled for Link to be silent, but the elf ignored him, reaching out with one gauntleted hand.  He rested his palm softly on Aerdre's silvery-blue-haired head, as if in benediction.  "You look like Navi." he said.  The girl's eyes did not break from his, but she shook her head.  "I am not she.  But. I have heard of her, in my dreaming travels.  She lives, you know."

Chichiri had a sense that there was something of great import going on just around him, but he could not fathom it.  Perhaps tears were the reason that Link's blue eyes were suddenly so bright?  Link was smiling just a little.  "Thank you." he said.  The little girl shrugged.  "She thought you might like to know."  Aerdre reached up and detatched the elf's hand, and took it to her side, pulling him into the darkness of the hidden corridor.  "There is a way to her Majesty's room." she said.  "But we must be swift. There is not much time.  I never meant for this to happen..."

Over her head, Link's and Chichiri's eyes met.

The mare came slowly to a halt.  It was obvious that she had carried Julia as long as she would, and that she would go not one step further. Her purpose here was done.

Julia slid from the horse's back, running her fingers through her long sky-colored mane.  "Thank you." she said, hugging her neck, then backed away and watched as the mare turned and walked slowly into the night. Julia looked up the path--the wet smell was strong now, and she could at last see the reason why. A creek ran past her, only a few meters from her bare feet, quieter than it should have been, the ripples barely catching at the starlight.  The grass ran to the very edge of the water, and there was  no mud, just a clear demarcation between dry land and stream.

"I thought, here is a woman who is strong."

The voice came again from nowhere, and Julia froze, listening.  

"I thought that you could continue the work that I had died for.  But I did not want you...to have to lose what you have lost."

Julia smiled softly.  "What have I lost?" she asked, not worrying that she still could not see the speaker of the voice.  "I am happy here. What could I possibly have lost?"

**_"Everything."_****__**

There was more sorrow in those few syllables than Julia had experienced in her entire life--the life she was beginning to realize she had forgot.  "What do you mean?"

            "It would not have been like this. And I--there is no apology strong enough for what I have caused to happen to you, through a moment's looking away.  You die, and I am allowed to do nothing."

Julia froze.  "Oh." she said, very softly, understanding at last.  "That is why I forget. I am dying."

There was a sensation as of someone pausing, as the voice allowed her to come to grips.  "I am ending." she said.  "I will not _be, any more--not here, at any rate." she looked up into the preternaturally clear sky, and down at the grass that traced gentle caresses across her ankles and the tops of her feet.  "Did--was--have I done well, whoever and whatever I am? Was I worth it? Did I--fulfill any obligations that I might have had?" Julia's voice was steady.  She did not want to die--but there was no need in her either to live. It was peaceful._

Worlds must have been weeping at the pent-up emotion in the disembodied voice.  "Oh, my child, my child. You were noble, and wise, and above all you were good. You changed things for the better. You were _well worth it."_

Julia closed her eyes in silent thanks.  "I am glad." she whispered, and stepped toward the little stream.  "This?" she pointed at the dark water.  "That." agreed the voice.  "Though you can stay on the banks as long as you would--time here is unlike time as you are accustomed to it."

Julia shook her head and took another step.  "No.  I am not one--I _know_ I am not one--to dawdle so at such a necessary thing.  If this is the way, then I shall take it."  She pulled back her hair, tied it into a knot, and took another step.  The grass parted under her bare feet. One more pace, one more inch, and she would be in the slow-moving stream, which was not a stream at all, or even water.

She took another step.

The pulse under Laguna's long fingers went still.  There was a final, last push against his hands, as if in farewell, and then there was nothing. Julia let out a little breath, and did not take in another.  Laguna bowed his head to her breast, willing himself numb, begging the gods for one more moment that he did not have to acknowledge what everyone in the room already did.

Laguna did not notice when the tapestry beside Julia's bed rippled with air that should not have been there, and disgorged Link and Chichiri and an unfamiliar little girl.  At the same instant, the door flew open and Tasuki came racing in, clutching something as gently as he would an egg.  "I can help 'er! I can fuckin' help 'er! Lemme by! Get outta the way!"  he shouldered his way through the gathering of sad-faced people, but even as he saw Laguna's face, he knew that it was too late.

Julia was dead.

A/N: I am sorry to have to end it on such a cliffhanger!  I couldn't figure out any other way to end it that wouldn't leave you with a six-thousand word chapter here...gomen nasai.  Reviews? Tell me what you think.

Out of all the chapters so far, this one has been the most...difficult...to write.

--'Neta


	15. Glass

Disclaimer: I don't own *anything.*  And none of the boys even *write* me anymore, so I guess that their identities are their own. But Aerdre, and the half-burned castle thing, and the doctor are mine. Kinda. Sort of. But they're their own too, you know.

GLASS

There was an instant where everyone in the room realized what had happened. Events crystallize; the people in the room did not need to look at each other to communicate their pain.  Laguna lowered his face to Julia's shoulder, sobbing silently, at last lowering her hand to the blanket and releasing it.

The look on Tasuki's face told more than any amount of profanity--or any lack of it.  He shook his head.  "No." he said softly.  "No, that's not right, not when I was so close."  His fist shook, and again there was the sparkle of something under glass--he uncurled his fingers and Chichiri saw the bottled elemental that Link had shown him, that night in the field.  Aerdre had turned to face Chichiri's robes, and his long hands stroked her hair, hiding the Queen from the child's view.  The little girl was crying without noise or movement, and her tears soaked the sturdy fabric dark into a dark and unrecognizable pattern.  "This is not right." she said quietly, for that instant nothing more than a tiny child, afraid and miserable.

Link was looking from his companions to the Queen, disbelief writ large in his eyes.  "This is not _right!" he said. Chichiri held up one hand to silence him, but the elf shook his head sharply.  "This is not how it should be!"_

One of the Queen's nameless relatives glared.  "No. It is not. But betimes, people here do _die.  You are a warrior--is this so strange to you?"  Link ignored the woman.  "Tas'ki--give me that bottle."  the seishi looked over at him, and held out his hand.  "Take it. Fuckin' lot of good it did 'er."  Link pulled at the stopper on the little bottle, and grimaced.  "This is _wrong_!"  he said again. "It's not even a real bottle, nothing that could hold a fairy, it's--it's just a __thought to it_,_ a suggestion! This is _wrong!_" Aerdre reached up and slid it from his clenched fingers, and tapped the top of it.  "It is." she said.  She walked over to the bed, knelt, and with all her strength slammed the softly-glowing vial against the flagstone floor.  The glass cracked with a sound like breaking wood, and a shard bit deep into her hand, but the spirit trapped inside could not escape. She frowned, as if at a doll that would not sit up right, and did it again.  Her fingers spasmed and blood dripped down the glass and onto the floor, and the bottle was full of frantic motion--the fairy was pushing with her miniature hands and shoulders on the spiderwebbed glass, trying in her own weak way to help.  The girl raised her hand one more time, her arm straight above her head, and slammed it to the ground, crying out as the glass fell into glittering shards. She shook her hand to free them, flicking blood across her slim knees and the corner of the Queen's coverlet--and the air was filled with light._

            Chichiri noticed instantly the way that Tasuki's breathing eased;  the warrior had taken in too much smoke, and he had been worrying just a little about it--the pain he felt in the link that bound them was gently washed away, and at the same time the monk noticed that the muscles in his own back, still weary from the last night's dangerous exertions, felt loose and comfortable.  The fairy came close to his face for an instant, and he could see her smile through the light that she gave off, the light that chased away every single shadow in the room.  It seemed to him that they were floating in light.  The Queen's relatives stood straighter, eyes wide, undone by wonder.  "What is that?" the woman who had snapped at Tasuki asked.  "It's beautiful." the awe in her voice made her seem decades younger.  But none of the warriors paid attention to her, or to any of the others.  The fairy bobbed slowly over to where the Queen lay, her white hand so close to Laguna's on the bed that their fingers almost touched.  Laguna stared at the creature with red-rimmed eyes, gnawing on his lower lip, not daring to hope.

            The pink fairy reached out and ran her fingers across his face, turning away before she could see his change of expression.  And then she faced the Queen.  She flew across the woman's body, looking at her, and then with an almost undetectable shrug, she spun in the air around the woman, scattering sparks.  There was a smell of something green, of running water and--something familiar.  His mind shied away from that smell without him ever noticing, so intent was he on Julia's face.  With a last lingering turn, like a girl in her mother's dress, the fairy disappeared.  For a second, Laguna felt a terrible lurch--he _had_ been hoping after all, but there was obviously nothing that the creature could do.  Of course. How could he have allowed himself to think otherwise, even for an instant?

And then Julia's fingers clenched, making a fist for half a second before they loosened and fell open again.

Her eyelids fluttered for a moment, and she took a horrible rattling breath.  A frown creased her forehead, and she murmured something that Laguna could not hear.  She turned her head just a little, settling back into sleep, her breathing deep and normal, the breath of a woman turning back to a dream. Laguna stared, not believing, as the series of gasps and the rustle of courtly clothing behind him at last alerted him to the presence of so many other people in the room.  The man was pushed rudely aside by the Queen's doctor, who took her wrist, shaking his head sharply at the renewed pulse, and then carefully reached around to the back of her head.  His gentle fingers unravelled bandages and pads, and he stopped short when he came to the place that her head had been damaged.  A few stray hairs came off with the bandages, stuck there with dried blood, but aside from that there was no sign that she had ever been injured.

"A miracle." he whispered, falling to his knees.  "Our Queen must be sacrosanct. One from the Fields has intervened and saved her, through the hand of these her friends, for who else could ever do such a thing?"

Tasuki turned to look at the woman who had yelled at him, but her eyes were turned from him in fear.  "My lord." she said.  "My deepest apologies--I was one of those who had you put in prison. If you had stayed there--if you had been barred from our Queen--"  the woman's face crumpled.  "My lord, forgive me!  You come from the Fields, but I never took the time to think what that might mean. Forgive me."  the last words came out in a whisper.

            "Fuuuck!" Tasuki shouted, the adrenalin of the moment rushing out of him at that one word. Everyone in the room jumped, except of course for Laguna, who had taken up Julia's hand again.  "I can't handle this shit!  I'm going to find a drink!"

As he spoke, there came the sound of many feet from outside the door, and the angry voice of Lord Keralor.  "They will defile our lady even as she dies!" he yelled to his men, rage making his voice high and sharp.  "We must...not..."  he'd flung the door open, and he saw all four warriors' faces turned to his, their expressions telling.  Laguna looked a little curious, but Chichiri's face was stiff with a terrible anger.

"Regicide." he said softly.  The assembled relatives turned to look in surprise.  "You would have killed your cousin for something as worthless as power."

Keralor took a step backward without realizing it, bumping into the barrel-chest of one of his own men.  "How--what is this idiocy falling from your mouth?" he strode forward as he regained his inner momentum.  "This is all your doing!" he gestured to the sleeping Queen, whose lips had turned up a little at the corners, as though she was having a happy dream.  One of the relatives let out a short, sharp bark of a laugh.  "It is." he said.  "None of us are in disagreement with you there, Keralor."

Beginning to realize that something was wrong, the man looked closer at the Queen.  The blankets rose and fell with her breathing, and the color had come back to her face.  Laguna, guessing rightly that Keralor had something to do with Julia's injury, rose to his feet and gently lay her hand on her stomach.  "You did this?" he asked in a low, dangerous voice.

            "Eh--What?  I? I? Never! It was these, these filthy outlanders, these--" he was spitting every word now, and the relatives behind him were alarmed, whispering to each other.  "--these bastards, these murderers! Murderers!"

            "Keralor--they saved her life."

            It was the woman who had spoken sharply to Tasuki, and then nearly prostrated herself to him.  "I allowed you to sway my vote on the Council because I believed you.  But this is...I am having second thoughts, cousin." she said.  "I would think that perhaps you should retire to your rooms until we all can meet and sort the chaff of lies from the grain of truth."  Two of the men detached themselves from the crowd at a glance from her, and moved toward the lord.

            Keralor drew himself up in affront.  "As you would, Lady Jessa." he said, bowing curtly.  "Let it not be said that I am an unreasonable man."  His hand on the hilt of his sword, he spun and stomped out the door.  Link let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding, and Tasuki shook his head.  _They should kill him. But how can I tell them that without looking as though I _am_ a murderer?_

The doctor was shooing people out of the room.  "A miracle is a miracle," he said, "but she no doubt needs her sleep. Let her rest. I'll send a page around with word of her at the evening meal--but you all have much to do. Go, go, help your people."

With one red-clad arm, the man held back the warriors as they went to leave, and then closed and barred the door. "What just happened?" he asked.  Aerdre had not moved, and hidden as she was by the legs of the relatives, the warriors had mostly forgotten about her.  But Chichiri saw with alarm, as Link began to explain, that the girl was folded on herself, pinching her hand and rocking a little as if in great pain.  She looked up as he approached, her face white and streaked with tears.  "Hurts." she said.  Her hand was still sliced and torn, and bleeding heavily.  

Chichiri lifted the girl, taking some of her pain into himself, siphoning the edge of it away until she felt only a throbbing ache which she could almost ignore.  He brushed her sweat-damp hair back from her face.  "Aerdre, Aerdre...brave little one..." he crooned.  "Child, why are you still hurt?  The little nature-spirit should have healed you too."

She stiffened in his arms, and he rocked her.  "Be at peace.  I am not trying to pry, no da. Ignore me." his voice took on its normal bantering tone.

The doctor looked up, and his eyes narrowed.  "What's this? Bring the girl to me." he clucked over her hand, uncurling her fingers, and Tasuki winced. Link stared at the wound, flicking his eyes up for a moment to meet Chichiri's. "Later." the monk mouthed, still holding the child.  The doctor gestured for them to follow him to a room connected to the one they stood in, a little anteroom with a low, sturdy cot set up on it, and a table covered in bandages and herbs and sharp silver needles.  "This will pain you, but it is better this than waiting otherwise." the doctor said as Chichiri set Aerdre down on the cot.  He sat beside her, and she clambered up into his lap with a little whimper.  "Needles?" she asked.  The doctor nodded.  "Needles. And good cotton thread. But also kassik-leaves to numb the pain, and murro tea to make you sleep. You will not feel much.  Drink the tea, and sleep in Master Hojun's lap, and he and I will make it better."

Tasuki and Link, beside the Queen's bed, were deep in whispered conversation.  "Were this my world," Link said, " I would have followed that son of a Moblin out into the hall and fought him.  I would have killed him there, or chased him away--but I do agree that dead is best. There are some evils that do not go away when backs are turned to it."

            "Hell, we've had enough warning about the bastard as it is." Tasuki said.  "'E's dangerous, and we dunno why, aside from the usual murders--and those are fuckin' bad enough.  We--we didn' get everyone out of the fire, Link."

            The elf shook his head sadly.  "No. There was no way we could have--the fire was magic, and it would be burning still if not for the stronger, older magic that we had to combat it.  There were those trapped under rubble in the dining hall, and in the ruins of the kitchen, the ones that could not escape through the window.  There were others."

            "An'--what happened to those little girls that Chichiri and I got out?  They said somethin' about bandits...their parents were in the dining hall. Fuck. I hope they got out, 'cause otherwise...Hell, I can't just _leave_ 'em. I'll have to track 'em down now. This doesn't seem to be a real fuckin' safe place for kids, right now."

            "No, indeed."  The elf glanced over at Laguna, who had risen to his feet, his face pulled in on itself.  "What's the matter?"

            "Do--do you smell that?" Laguna asked them without looking.

            Link took a deep breath.  "Herbs, flowers, linens, many people moving, fairy-scent, dead fire, fear, pain, surprise, joy.  Metal. Stone floor and walls. Nothing out of the ordinary.  Smell what?"

            Tasuki, too, found himself breathing deep through his nostrils, trying to sense whatever it was that the older man had noticed.  "Nah, nothin' new. What's th' problem?"

The man said nothing, leaning across the Queen, his arms folded tight around his chest.  "Laguna?" Tasuki called quietly, mindful of the Queen.  Laguna showed no sign of having heard him.  As one, the elf and the man walked over to him, studying the Queen, trying to see what Laguna saw.

Laguna reached out with a shaking hand and brushed Julia's dark hair back over her shoulder.  Link drew a sharp breath in surprise. "How did that get there? She wasn't wearing that." and after a breath, he said "I _do_ smell it."

Tasuki looked from one man to another. "Fuck, it's just a flower. Y'had me worried there, man."  Laguna's face, if possible, was even more unreadable.  Gently, not even shaking a petal on the delicate-looking white flower, he plucked it from the Queen's hair.  "This--this--"  he turned away.  Link looked younger than he was, all of a sudden, or perhaps he just looked his real age.  "Where do you know it from, Laguna?" he asked, putting his hand on the older man's shoulder.

            "Raine grew these." he said.  "I've never found them anywhere in the world but near Raine.  When she died--we tried to keep the plants alive, tried everything, but they withered and died too. They wouldn't last in the garden, or in the places inside the house where she used to keep them. We tried watering them more, or less, or feeding the soil they grew in, putting them in more sunlight, putting them in the shade...it was like she was the only reason they grew, and when she died, they saw no need to blossom.  I haven't seen one of these in twenty years.  And that smell..."

Tasuki took another deep breath, and finally noticed it. It was faint, delicate, almost like--_no, not like an orange blossom, more like a lilac. Or maybe a lily? Or...now it's almost like honeysuckle. What _is_ that?_

"Raine always smelled just like that." Laguna said, remembering.  "Always.  She could have been working in the garden, or chasing children around, sweating or just from the bath--she always smelled just like that. I've never smelled it anywhere else. It's funny, isn't it, how you can forget something for half a lifetime, and a smell or a taste will bring it all back in an instant."  his eyes were prickling, and he shook his head.  "And this one will wither, too." he said.  "There's nothing I can do."

Link reached into a pocket of his tunic.  "I'm good for something." he said wryly, handing a little bottle to Laguna.  "Water." he said.  "Nothing more. Water from Lake Hylia, or maybe Zora's River...I forget when I filled it last. Just water to drink. But it is something."  the bottle uncorked easily, and Laguna slid the long stem through its mouth until it touched the water.  "Thanks." he said, placing the bottle on the wide high windowsill.  He turned back to Julia without making another sound.

Unnoticed, Tasuki knelt at the corner of the bed and lifted one of the smallest shards of glass he could find.  _The fairy's gone._ he thought.  _But...sympathetic magic, maybe? Maybe there's something left of it?  As Laguna once again took up both Julia's hand and his vigil, Tasuki walked to the window, ostensibly to look out on the fields below. Swiftly, without a backwards glance, he dropped the shard into the bottle--it sank through the water, careened off of the flower's green stem, and sank to the bottom. It was so clear that through the distortion of the bottle it was invisible, except to eyes that knew to look for it. Satisfied, Tasuki turned away._

And in the bottle, in processes so small and quick that the human eye can not see them, the flower began to put out roots.


End file.
